Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Mike Maignan made their comebacks in Milan’s 2-0 victory over Atalanta on Sunday, and Stefano Pioli praised their performances.
Ibrahimovic entered the game in the second half for the first time since May 2022, when he underwent knee surgery that many believed would put an end to his career.
Meanwhile, goalkeeper Maignan made his first appearance in goal since suffering an injury of his own in September and celebrated his return with a shutout.
Pioli is happy toe all of his players back, and the return of the pair comes at the perfect time for Milan, who have won four straight matches across all competitions.
“Mike and Zlatan are not only two excellent players, but also two leaders of the team,” Pioli, who was taking charge of his 800th career game as a coach, told DAZN.
“Having them on the pitch helps us a lot. Now we must think about the next match. We will have players absent for that game but will still put in a good performance.”
At 41 years and 146 days, Ibrahimovic overtook Alessandro Costacurta (41y, 25d) as Milan’s oldest player in Serie A in the three-points-per-win era (1993-94 season).
The veteran striker only had 14 touches of the ball in his 16 minutes in action and did not manage a shot, but Milan’s second goal arrived with him on the field.
Junior Messias clipped the ball over Juan Musso, who had earlier scored an unfortunate own goal when Theo Hernandez’s 25-yard volley hit the post and went in off his body.
It was a brilliant strike from Hernandez after Olivier Giroud had nodded the ball into his path, and the wing-back believes he should be credited with the goal himself.
“I consider it my goal,” he said. “I’m going to count it as mine. Thanks also to Oli for knocking it down for me. It was a good goal.
“It’s true that we went through a difficult time, but with this victory, we are getting back to being the Milan we were before.”
Milan have now won four games without conceding in all competitions for the first time since February 2018, with their latest victory moving them level with second-place Inter.
The Rossoneri wasted a number of good chances with the game at 1-0, but Atalanta failed to offer any sort of attacking threat.
Indeed, they had only three attempts all match – their lowest tally since April 2013 – and did not test the returning Maignan on a single occasion.
“We gave our all and tried everything, but Milan were superior on the night and we must learn from these games to focus on the next one,” Gian Piero Gasperini said.
“What we saw tonight was that despite our best efforts, it is evident Milan simply had more than we did.”
The only blemish for Milan is that Rafael Leao – who set up Messias’ goal – and Rade Krunic will miss next week’s trip to Fiorentina after being booked for the fifth time this term.