Due to Oddo's injury, Abate took his place and mainly played as the right-back in the match against Catania. In the 21st minute of the second half, Antonini replaced Zambrotta as the left-back, which was the first time both Antonini and Abate appeared on the field together this season. Leonardo once said: "I am glad to see the growth of Antonini and Abate." And today, their performance was indeed satisfactory.
An interesting cooperation between the two happened in the 91st minute when AC Milan's corner kick was intercepted by the opponent, resulting in a three-on-two situation. The two "two" players dragging behind were precisely Abate and Antonini, these two full-backs. The result? Antonini rushed forward, and Abate pressed ahead, just as if they had planned it, forcing the opponent to pass offside. These two young full-backs come from the same agent (D'Amico), are good friends off the field, and have an indescribable understanding on the field, completing a brilliant collaboration.
Speaking of Abate, there was an interesting incident recently. After the match against Marseille, Abate summarized: "My overall performance was not bad, except for pulling Niang's shirt." But in fact, Abate got the person wrong. The reporter immediately corrected him that he did pull someone in that match but it was Ben Arfa who came on as a substitute for Niang. This somewhat "confused" guy becomes extremely clear-headed on the field.
Abate's speed has helped him create many great works in attack. His quick and effective cooperation with Pato on the right wing is commendable. According to OPTA data, Abate had a total of 7 crosses. Abate's repeated sprinting ability is also worth mentioning. In the 90th minute, under conditions where everyone's stamina was decreasing, he still managed to perform a high-speed dribble past defenders and nearly scored.
In defense, Abate has also made significant progress. According to OPTA statistics, he successfully tackled 4 times, cleared the ball 5 times, and made 2 interceptions. He didn't give the opponent any opportunities on his right flank. More notably, Abate's total number of passes reached 76! As a full-back, this is a rare number, making him the player with the most passes for AC Milan in the entire match. This indicates that, with Pirlo absent and Flamini struggling to control the midfield, Abate on the right became the main channel for AC Milan to advance from the backfield to the midfield. On the left side, despite playing for 66 minutes, Zambrotta only made 27 passes, showing a stark contrast.
After Zambrotta's physical exhaustion, Antonini came on. In just 25 minutes, Antonini completed 2 successful tackles, 1 interception, and provided one dangerous pass. In terms of timing for tackling in direct defense, Antonini showed significant improvement. After the match, both Abate and Antonini were given a high score of 6.5 by "TuttoMercatoWeb". Of course, Abate and Antonini also exposed some shortcomings. For example, Antonini, a right-footed player on the left side, still finds it awkward to cross the ball with his left foot, twice directly sending the ball out of bounds. Abate should reduce the randomness of his passing in attack. At the start of the second half, one of his passes was blocked back by the opponent, and if it weren't for Thiago Silva's timely interception, it might have resulted in a great counter-attack opportunity for the opponent.
Currently, AC Milan's two starting full-backs, Oddo and Zambrotta, are already 33 and 32 years old respectively. A generational change is inevitable. AC Milan may acquire new full-backs, but now within the team, both Antonini and Abate, who come from Milan's youth academy, have priority to showcase themselves in front of Leonardo. As long as they continue to demonstrate their progress, the future should belong to them.