With a humiliating 5-2 home loss to a Sassuolo team that had collected just 2 points from their past 8 games, Milan’s season has completely come to an end.
In his first start for Milan since November 8, Ante Rebic immediately fired a shot across the goal. On the eighth minute, Olivier Giroud appeared to have scored on an acrobatic volley off the outside of his left boot following a cross from Theo Hernandez, but the goal was disallowed due to a very close call on offside.
Sassuolo took the lead shortly after Armand Lauriente’s hard and low strike at the base of the near post forced a difficult save from Ciprian Tatarusanu. When Gregoire Defrel was completely unmarked, he was able to tap the ball in at the back post after what appeared to be a shot by Domenico Berardi was actually an assist.
That made the Rossoneri lose faith in themselves, and they gave up another goal right away. Once more, it descended to the right, and Tatarusanu was caught off guard as Davide Frattesi and Berardi exchanged passes before the latter smashed the ball home at the near post. The first half of Pioli’s team’s fourth competitive game in a row saw them fall behind 2-0.
After that shocking one-two, Milan did respond with a towering Giroud header from Davide Calabria’s cross into the far top corner to snap them out of their funk. Berardi, however, added to the two assists by scoring third goal against the Milan. He only needed to steer in the Junior Traore corner at the near post while Tatarusanu remained static and did not even attempt to jump.
After Leao entered the game in the second half, Sassuolo immediately had a penalty when Calabria failed to keep up with Laurienté. The winger also converted the penalty, sending the ball past Tatarusanu’s fingertips into the near bottom corner. Milan had never previously conceded four goals in consecutive Serie A games.
They scored again when Rebic half-volleyed from six yards away at the far post off a free kick from Sandro Tonali that Pedro Obiang flicked on. Due to Rebic’s slight offside on the free kick, it was disallowed thanks to Semi-Automatic Offside Technology.
Sassuolo added a fifth goal when Berardi caught Hernandez slacking and set up Henrique, who had time within the box to control and shoot beneath a slow Tatarusanu.
Divock Origi scored a spectacular long-range goal off the underside of the crossbar in the far top corner to end the game with 5-2 scoreline and another consecutive loss for Rossoneri.
FOLLOW THIS ARTICLE ON TWITTER
READ MORE;
Pioli makes big changes in Milan against Sassuolo
Cremonese 1-2 Inter: Lautaro the hero again in Nerazzuri comeback
Nicolo Zaniolo left out of squad for crucial battle against Napoli due to transfer dispute