By snatching a late victory away to Verona, who made their debut under new coach Salvatore Bocchetti, Sandro Tonali furthered his affection for the Stadio Bentegodi and moved Milan up to third place.
The Rossoneri were still reeling from their controversial 18-minute dismissal of Fikayo Tomori in the Champions League loss to Chelsea during the previous week. Yacine Adli made his debut because of the ongoing injury crisis that included the absence of Ibrahimovic, Florenzi, Maignan, Calabria, and Kjaer.
In the meantime, Gabriele Cioffi was fired by Hellas, who then played their first game under Primavera youth team coach Bocchetti. Doig, Ilic, Lasagna, Lazovic, and Dawidowicz all had injuries in addition to Federico Ceccherini, who was suspended.
Ajdin Hrustic’s terrible backpass from Verona was directed at Olivier Giroud, who then fed Rafael Leao to sprint down the left, and Miguel Veloso unintentionally pushed the pull-back into his own goal.
They came close to doing it again a few seconds later when Giroud and Brahim Diaz quickly exchanged passes before Giroud dinked the ball over the goalkeeper and just inches wide of the open goal.
Koray Gunter made a run down the left, and Ciprian Tatarusanu appeared to have his finish under control until Matteo Gabbia made a crucial deflection at the near post. As a result, Gunter rather than Gabbia received credit for the goal.
Verona made a threat from a corner as Gunter advanced past Pierre Kalulu at the back post but chose to attempt a rebound rather than a shot on goal.
On the counterattack, Hrustic curled just wide of the far post, and then Ante Rebic forced a save from a through ball from Theo Hernandez.
On the 56th minute, Roberto Piccoli nearly gave Verona the lead when, with practically his first touch, he was left completely unmarked for a free header on Veloso’s pull-back that struck the crossbar. It returned to Gunter, whose scorcher skimmed the woodwork as it came in from the area’s edge.
Milan had two opportunities; first, Lorenzo Montip parried a thunderbolt from Theo Hernandez, and second, Ante Rebic headed in from close range following a Sandro Tonali cross.
Divock Origi missed the target, but Milan did regain the lead when Tonali calmly swept in with the inside of the boot from 12 yards after Rebic’s right-side cross. Oddly, Tonali’s most recent goals came in this match during the 3-1 victory from the previous season.
Malick Thiaw made his Milan debut after coming off the bench and blocked Piccoli’s shot with a last-ditch effort.
With Verona always dangerous from set plays, Thiaw once more saved the day in stoppage time when Tonali forced another save from Montip at the near post on Milan Djuric.
The final whistle has blown, and Milan has won to the chagrin of the Hellenics in Veronall! The hosts played incredibly well the entire time and had numerous opportunities to score the game’s winning goal, but they were unable to take advantage and Tonali popped up to score in the 81st minute. Verona can learn a lot from Salvatore Bocchetti’s first game as manager, but Milan will know they got lucky as they secure a third straight league victory.
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