Deulofeu opens his AC Milan account / Image via goal.com
It has been an extremely important game for both teams and Montella’s jump of joy after the final whistle speaks volumes as Milan beat Fiorentina on Sunday night.
Juraj Kucka opened the scoring, before Fiorentina leveled the score minutes later, but January signing Gerard Deulofeu made sure Milan emerge victorious as he scored a beautiful first-half goal.
Team News & Form Guide
Juraj Kucka’s return from suspension proved to be crucial for home side AC Milan who had plenty of selection worries ahead of the Sunday night’s duel against Fiorentina.
Vincenzo Montella was without a number of first-team choices including Antonelli, Bonaventura, De Sciglio, Montolivo and Romagnoli, who all suffered from respective injuries.
Rossoneri headed into the Fiorentina match on the back of a win over Bologna and a draw against Lazio, respectively, which came after a disappointing 4-match losing streak earlier in January and Vincenzo Montella will be extremely pleased with how his players responded against a highly-competitive side such as Fiorentina.
Viola, on their own end, made a trip to Milano without key-player Federico Bernandeschi who missed the match through a yellow card suspension. The scorer of ten Serie A goals thus far in the season was sorely missed. Additionally, Bartolomej Dragoeski was another unavailable player for the visiting side.
Fiorentina will be unhappy to see their two-match winning streak come to an end in what’s been the second defeat in last four matches for the club. Paulo Sousa’s men missed a fine chance to leapfrog Milan in seventh place in the standings and here is the full match report from the great game at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza tonight.
First Half
Three goals in the first 45 minutes are enough to suggest what kind of a Serie A game we were treated with on a Sunday night.
A wonderfully eventful Round 25 closuring game started off with the visitors pushing hard in the opening stages and getting close to scoring after only twelve minutes when Borja Valero attempted a shot from the edge of the box, forcing Gianluigi Donnarumma to make a brilliant save.
The hosts responded five minutes later by broking a deadlock through Juraj Kucka, who could not have had a better return from suspension. The Milan man outjumped Fiorentina defence in the centre of the box to latch on a Jose Sosa’s free kick.
Kucka sent the ball inside the left post much to the delight of the home support.
The early lead did not ruin Fiorentina’s ambitions in the game and the visitors managed to get back in the game after only twenty minutes of play when the in-form Nikola Kalinic met an inch-perfect cross into the box to fire an unstoppable low drive into the middle of the net.
The game opened up quite nicely midway through the first half with both sides displaying fine football. The hosts used the home pitch advantage to put great pressure and attack with confidence, displayed most evidently through a wonderful performance of the January signing Gerard Deulofeu.
Everton man on loan at Rossoneri is proving to be an instant fit with the Italian side and his influence was most evident at the half-hour mark when he weaved past the opponents to unleash a magnificent effort from the edge of the box and send the ball behind Ciprian Tatarustanu’s back.
Viola unsuccessfully attempted to get back on their feet once again in the first half, but Gonzalo Rodriguez missed a great chance three minutes from time when he sent a header just a whisker over the crossbar.
Second Half
Home fans will have been rather disappointed with the second half of the game as their team decided to sit back and try to preserve their lead, sporadically breaking upfront against highly organized Fiorentina, who emerged out of the tunnel feeling determined to level the score for the second time in the match.
Paulo Sousa’s tactics were given a stern test against defensively organized switch made by Milan and his on-pitch dominance came to nothing in the end. Montella made a couple of defensively oriented changes that firmed the midfield wall, never allowing Fiorentina to breach the Milan lines.
Viola were levitating around and circling the hosts trying to get closer to Donnarumma’s goal but lacked the cutting edge and ideas to break forward. Borja Valero attempted to wake up his teammates with a couple of inviting crosses into the Milan box, but Paulo Sousa’s men struggled frustratingly to level the score.
Pressured to grab a point that would keep their European hopes alive, Fiorentina failed to rise up to the challenge and came close to losing on an even bigger margin as Abate came agonizingly close to scoring the third for his team with minutes on the clock.
Rossoneri took advantage of Fiorentina making an error deep in their own half with Abate getting denied by Tatarusanu in the crucial moment of the game.
In the end, Fiorentina were the ones who bossed the possession in the second half but lacked the cutting blade to pierce through defensively-organized Milan, who did great to defend their 2-1 lead and grab hugely important three points.
Milan are currently with 44 points to their name, three short behind Lazio in sixth and four behind Atalanta and Napoli in the European spots.
Statistical Overview
- Fiorentina finished the game with 62% possession to Milan’s 38%
- Viola made 17 goal attempts to Milan’s 6
- Milan had no shots off target whereas Fiorentina misfired 5
- Deulofeu scored his first-ever goal for Milan
- Donnarumma pulled 6 saves tonight to help Milan win
MILAN: Donnarumma 7 – Abale 6.5, Gomez 7, Paletta 6.5, Vangioni 6.5 – Kucka 7.5 (Zapata6.5), Sosa 7, pasalic 7 – Suso 7, Bacca 6.5, Deulofeu 7.5 (Bertolacci)
Unusued subs: Bertolacci, Calabria, Fernandez, Honda, Lapadula, Locatelli, Ocampos, Plizzari, Storari, Zucchetti.
FIORENTINA: Tatarusanu 6 – Salcedo 6.5, Rodriguez 6.5, Astori 7, Chiesa 7 (Badelj 6), sanchez 7, Vecino 6.5, Cristoforo 6.5 (Tello 6), Ilicic 7 (Saponara 6), Valero 7 – Kalinic 7
Unused subs: Babacar, De Maio, Hagi, Milic, Olivera, Satelino, Sportiello, Tomovic.
REFEREE: Palo Valeri
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Bologna 0-1 Inter
Chievo 1-3 Napoli
Pescara 5-0 Genoa
Sampdoria 1-1 Cagliari
Udinese 1-2 Sassuolo
Roma 4-1 Torino
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