Milan 2-4 Bologna: Amorim's Side Pay for Possession Without Punch

Milan had 66% of the ball at San Siro on Wednesday night and still lost 4-2 to Bologna. That sentence alone should be enough to make Ruben Amorim's staff sit up. The raw numbers from the match tell a story that the scoreline only partly captures: Milan managed eight shots to Bologna's nine, and just three on target to Bologna's five. Bologna also had more touches in the opposition box, 18 to 15. This was not a case of a dominant side being undone by clinical finishing. It was a case of a side with the ball failing to turn it into danger.

The pattern of the scoring makes the point sharper. Alphadjo Cissè scored twice in the first half, on 14 and 27 minutes, either side of Samuel Mbangula's eighth-minute opener. Milan went in at the break with a lead. Bologna's first Serie A win at San Siro in over a decade was built on the second half, and Milan's chance creation fell away after the interval.

Milan's season averages make the drop-off harder to dismiss as a one-off. Across their earlier 2026/27 matches in all competitions, they averaged 23.6 touches in the opposition box. Here they managed 15. They averaged 3.4 corners; here they had two. Their possession average was 51.8%; here it was 66. That is the trade-off in plain terms: more of the ball, less of it in the places that matter.

Milan's expected goals of 1.71 against Bologna's 1.88 reflects a match in which the visitors created the better chances despite seeing far less of the ball. Both sides registered four big chances, but Bologna's five shots on target to Milan's three suggests they were the more direct threat when it counted.

This was Milan's first Serie A defeat of the season and Amorim's first in the league since taking charge. It dents their position near the top of the table and arrives with the Derby della Madonnina against Inter on Saturday. The injury list offers context without excusing the second-half fade: Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Adrien Rabiot, Diego Moreira, Samuel Chukwueze, Mario Gila, Matteo Gabbia, Alexis Saelemaekers and Pietro Terracciano were all unavailable. Bologna were without Riccardo Orsolini, Roberto Piccoli, Emil Holm, Jay Enem and Lorenzo De Silvestri.

Whether the second-half drop-off was a matter of fatigue, rotation ahead of the derby, or a tactical adjustment from Bologna is not yet clear. Officials have not said how the second-half changes shaped the game, and the substitutions made by either manager have not been detailed. What is clear is that Milan's possession without penetration is a problem Amorim will need to solve quickly.

For Milan, the question is not whether they can keep the ball. They can. The question is what they do with it when the game is there to be won.