Kanye West knows what the Midwest is. Young and restless. But what about Marassi? Old and misty, home to the club founded by James Richardson Spenseley.
Although no longer welcome on Venice’s Water Taxis after a compromising photo emerged last month of him and his wife Bianca Censori apparently in flagrante, West was not denied entry to his first Serie A game. Swapping the canals for the carrugi, he was a surprise attendee of Genoa-AC Milan on Saturday night.
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A recipient of a Genoa shirt to mark the occasion, if West stuck around for the last 10 minutes, he will have witnessed an end that might have made it onto My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, so unthinkable was the climax to this game.
His fellow Americans Yunus Musah and Christian Pulisic combined to give Milan the lead in controversial circumstances in the 87th minute. Pulisic appeared to handle the ball as he spun to get his shot away but the absence of clear and obvious proof stopped the VAR from overruling the decision taken by referee Marco Piccinini and allowed Captain America’s fourth goal in Milan’s colours to stand.
Genoa’s coach, the former Milan striker Alberto Gilardino, once famous for his ‘little violin’ celebration, chose not to string together a lament after the game. “Otherwise he’d get banned so it’s better I get one instead,” Genoa president Alberto Zangrillo said, as he assumed the post-match media duties. Italy’s most famous anaesthetist and personal doctor to the late Silvio Berlusconi, could not dull the pain. Furious, he fell out with broadcaster DAZN’s former referee Luca Marelli — “everyone could see Pulisic touched it with his forearm” — and complained that the game’s gone. “We are made to survive in a world that is more and more unjust where the same old teams are still the boss.”
Zangrillo wasn’t done. He gave his medical opinion of the foul by Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan on Caleb Ekuban in the 96th minute, which reopened the game. “Assassina”. A “murderous” high knee that led to his sending-off. “Let’s see how many games they ban him for,” Zangrillo huffed.
At the very least, Maignan will miss the first game back after the international break against Juventus; as will his compatriot Theo Hernandez, who picked up his fifth booking in eight games.
A more pressing dilemma for Milan coach Stefano Pioli was the fact he’d used all his substitutes when Maignan was dismissed.
Minutes earlier, he’d brought on teenage defender Davide Bartesaghi, who signed his first professional contract in the week, to waste a bit of time. It meant Pioli couldn’t turn to backup goalkeeper Marco Sportiello, so an outfield player would have to pull on Maignan’s gloves for the added time of stoppage time. “Pulisic wanted to go in goal because he’s probably done it in the past,” Pioli said. “But we were facing a free kick and I told him he was too short (5ft 8in/173cm).”
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As Milan’s tallest attacking player, it was left up to 6ft 3in Olivier Giroud to fill Maignan’s XL green jersey. “I’ve never experienced anything like it,” the French striker said. “But I used to go in goal as a boy.”
Immediately, Giroud needed a little luck as taking aim from the edge of the penalty area was Albert Gudmundsson, arguably the most in-form player in Serie A and a revelation this season. The Iceland international, whose grandfather of the same name played for Milan in the late 1940s, thought he’d equalised as his shot kicked up off Fikayo Tomori and headed for the top corner only to careen off the crossbar.
Giroud breathed a sigh of relief but not for long. All of a sudden bearing down on goal was George Puscas.
“I said to myself: ‘Go’,” Giroud laughed. “I don’t have the instincts of a goalkeeper but right then I felt like one.”
He rushed off his line and dived at Puscas’ feet, closing his eyes as he aimed a punch at the ball. When he opened them again, the ball wasn’t in the back of his net but squirming loose. Giroud leapt on it and was then leapt upon by his jubilant team-mates.
Did it feel like scoring a goal? “Almost,” he said, as he added a clean sheet to the four goals and three assists he has contributed this season.
While not quite on a par with the time in 1999 when Venezia’s Brazilian centre-back Fabio Bilica stood in for Fabrizio Casazza and saved a penalty from Milan’s Ballon d’Or winning striker Andriy Shevchenko, it was still an epic moment and continues this upside-down start to the season in Italy, where goalkeepers score and strikers make saves.
Josep Martinez, the Genoa shot-stopper, fancied doing an Ivan Provedel, only to receive a harsh second yellow card for bringing down a counter-attacking Musah. “Now we’re going to lose him as well,” Zangrillo fumed.
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Not since March 1992, and a 0-0 between Inter Milan and Torino, had both teams lost their goalkeepers to red cards.
Turkish midfielder Berkan Kutlu grabbed Martinez’s shirt and went in goal for Genoa as an absurd game drew to a close.
“I’m really proud of this team,” said Giroud, who was later added to the goalkeeper section of the squad list on Milan’s website. “We fought until the end. We fought like lions.”
The win sent Milan to the top of Serie A and is the kind of moment that leads a team to believe this could be their year. They have won every league game apart from the derby, that 5-1 defeat to Inter, who dropped points for a second game in a row at San Siro, as Bologna, a bogey team on a par with Sassuolo for them, came back from two down to draw 2-2.
While Milan’s ecstatic chief executive Giorgio Furlani celebrated in the away end, Giroud tried to toss Maignan’s goalkeeper jersey over the plexiglass to the travelling fans. He didn’t clear it and then, as he scooped it back up, thought better of trying again. That green shirt is going to be a collector’s item.
“I’m going to frame it,” Giroud said.
Another thing worth saving.
(Top photo: Matteo Ciambelli/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)