AC Milan 2-5 Sassuolo: Pioli under pressure as Rossoneri get embarrassed again

By Oliver Fisher -

AC Milan’s season sunk to new depths on Sunday afternoon at San Siro as they were beaten 5-2 by relegation battlers Sassuolo.

The tone was set by Olivier Giroud’s early goal being ruled out for offside as Sassuolo scored three goals in 11 minutes through Gregoire Defrel, Davide Frattesi and Domenico Berardi to go in 3-1 up at the break, with Milan’s defensive effort basically non existent.

When Armand Lauriente thumped home a penalty just after the break to make it 4-1 there was the sense that things had turned sour, and Matheus Henrique made it five for a Sassuolo side that had scored four in eight games before this.

It would ultimately finish 5-2 with Divock Origi scoring a screamer, but the fact around 10,000 fans were left at the full-time whistle says an awful lot about the way things have been in 2023, and now top four is in immense danger.

Stefano Pioli made some interesting alterations to the starting line-up from the hammering against Lazio in midweek as Matteo Gabbia came in for the injured Fikayo Tomori, Theo Hernandez came back in at left-back, Rade Krunic slotted in for the suspended Ismael Bennacer and perhaps most surprisingly Ante Rebic started on the left over Rafael Leao.

There was an early chance for Milan as Rebic was found with a ball in behind the Sassuolo defence having drifted into an area more on the right, but the Croatian pulled his effort wide of the far post and despite the offside flag going up after, replays showed he might have been onside.

There was a moment of worry not long after as Alexis Saelemaekers stayed down on the floor having collided with Krunic, though the Belgian continued after treatment for a bloodied mouth.

Milan thought they had taken the lead in the eighth minute when an inswinging cross from Theo Hernandez found Olivier Giroud at the back post who finished with an impressive shot inside the far post from the side of his boot, though VAR intervened to rule the Frenchman marginally offside.

Sassuolo then began knocking on the door, and Ciprian Tatarusanu was called into his first save of the game when the ball was spread to Lauriente down Sassuolo’s left, with the Frenchman firing low and seeing his attempt saved at the near post.

However, the Romanian could not keep Lauriente out in the 19th minute as the away side took the lead. Milan got caught in transition as they have been so often in recent weeks, with Berardi finding space on the right to send a ball across goal for the former Lorient man to tap in from close range.

Two minutes later the over 70,000 fans at San Siro were left stunned as Sassuolo doubled their advantage. Milan’s defence was at sixes and sevens as Frattesi played a one-two with Berardi, taking a touch around Gabbia and firing past Tatarusanu at the near post.

The frantic pace continued as Milan halved the deficit three minutes later. Davide Calabria sent in a cross from the right that met the head of Giroud, who beat Consigli with a fantastic header. Erlic was appealing for a foul after being caught by the Frenchman’s forearm, but his appeals were in vein.

Sassuolo then scored a third goal in 10 minutes as the Rossoneri’s frankly farcical attempts at defending showed no signs of relenting. A corner from Traore found Berardi at the near post who had found space between Giroud and Calabria and didn’t even have to jump, glancing a header past Tatarusanu at the near post.

Rebic had a couple of changes to make it a one-goal game again before the interval as the ball twice sat up for him on the half-volley inside the box, but the first time he skewed the effort comfortably wide and the second was straight at Consigli.

Rafael Leao came on for De Ketelaere at the break, but it would make no difference to the horror show happening at the other end of the field. Calabria brought down Lauriente in the box with a barge and left the referee no choice but to award a penalty, which the winger converted himself to make it 4-1.

Milan thought they had trimmed the deficit back to two when Rebic finally got a half-volley right, finding the far corner from deep in the box with Consigli motionless, yet the goal was rather bafflingly ruled out for offside even though the ball came off Obiang last.

The frustration for Rebic continued as Leao went on a bursting run to the left byline and cut the ball back to the Croatian, who leaned back and smashed it over the bar first time.

A triple substitution came with 20 minutes on the clock as Saelemaekers, Rebic and Krunic all made way for Junior Messias, Divock Origi and Tommaso Pobega.

It felt like Milan’s defensive effort was almost deliberately bad for the majority of the game, and with 10 minutes left Berardi got the better of Theo Hernandez to roll a feed to Matheus Henrique inside the box, who finished into the bottom right corner.

Origi got his second goal for the club with a stunning curling effort that went in off the crossbar but by this point the majority of fans were heading for the exits, and nobody could blame them.

Tags AC Milan Milan-Sassuolo

27 Comments

  1. Pioli OUT !!!

    He is not solution, with this transver policy (that will not change), we need coach you can give chances to young players like Mihajlovic did (GOD rest his soul). Who’s ever fault is this coach must be sacked.

    Pioli OUT !!!

  2. Yesterday someone asked Pioli why Vasquez does not play pioli response Vasquez is not ready today plays the total garbage of tata and we conceded 5 gols but lets keep playing tata because the only ones at fault are the defenders and midfielders but not tata and pioli for keep playing him last 7 games we had 27 shots at our goal and conceded 18 gols!Last season 38 games 31 gols conceded this season 20 games 29 gols conceded conceded nice job tata and pioli!

  3. Pioli out. Thats all I can say. Since he can’t integrate the new signings. And very bad result.
    Pioli has broken a record in Milan which is..
    @Squawka
    AC Milan have conceded 4+ goals in consecutive Serie A games for the first time in their history. 🤯

  4. Cardinale ———> go to Russia

    Pioli ————> Out and sacked

    Maldini and Massara ———> out and sacked

    In summer, sell Leao, he didn’t sign yet. And sell all players without any impact.

    Stop bull*hit with this “young” project and invest fair in new squad.

    New owner we need for new beginning, and not US scam money laundry idiots.

  5. lmao. i hope we concede 6 against inter.

    roma 2
    inter 3
    lazio 4
    sassuolo 5

    nice. sack pioli already. tatarusanu contract should be terminated. calabria sold off.

    1. It started with Torino, so it’s Torino 1, Roma 2 and so on. But nice discovery, I hope we don’t get humiliated by Tottenham that too with a bigger margin else we will start wishing that Milan doesn’t ever qualify for Champions league again.

  6. There is no team on the pitch! There is no space anymore for Ibra, Tata, Origi, Giroud, Tomori, Rebic, Brahim, Florenzi and Magnian. The defence is static, the midfield struggling, and the attack is non-existent! The long balls all lost and continue to play long balls! Tactical hopeless. Summer mercato a total flop! Some respect for the supporters, please.

  7. I told More than 30 times milan Will be Droped into Erope leage or Futher if it is not changed the wrong Decions of the Coach as well as the Owners and Directors from August 2022 up untill now.

  8. We had average stats but we still managed to f*cking concede 5 goals. Thats just f*cking shows that we lack defence. W need Maignan back and Tomori in form. They made 7 shots on target and 5 of them went in. The same goes for the lazio game, which was 10 shots and 4 goals. This justifies that our goalie and defence is the worst in Europe rn.

  9. At this rate Pioli is making up Leao’s mind to not pen a renewal. I said it when we lost 4-0 to Lazio, that if Tatarusanu is in goal then Pioli imo is now out of his depth. Is Mirante injured too or just like Vasquez he is not ready? , Tatarusanu is absolutely useless in goal he concede everytime there’s a shot at his goal unless the ball is in slow motion.

  10. Grande gioco per un neutrale. Aveva tutto. La difesa del Milan è stata dolorosa. Devo dire che il Sassuolo è stato eccellente. Il loro 4-3-3 sembrava lasciare il Milan senza risposte. Pioli non ha saputo reagire.

  11. Pioli needs to go. Another thrashing in the derby next week and he’s history. Pochettino is available and good with young players, but he’ll be expensive.

  12. Many commenters seem to believe that changing formations is done by snapping your fingers, budgets are just a number, or that Pioli is in charge of the transfer policy. This is real life, not FIFA or FM. Going from 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-3 switches from two pivots to just one. This is not a small change and the players are not showing any signs that this would be a good idea.

    Owners refuse to invest in the winter Mercato. With this budget, we can’t just buy players left and right. If you go grocery shopping with just 0.99€ in your wallet, you don’t come back with steak.

    Finally, when we do buy players, they need time to integrate. We are not alone in this problem. Look at Liverpool with their Nuñez. It takes time for players to adapt.

  13. Premier league 1, spanish league 2, german league 3, portugese league,4, french leaguea 5, nedherlands league 6. Turkis league 7. Then italian stuck in time league 8 .com

  14. Pioli out now. Maldini masara in the end of the season, add redbird too if possible. 2 steps forward, 3 steps forward it seems.

  15. I thought our team “was fine as is”???? And Redbird was right in not giving us $$ for the winter market lol. Ya who needs money in football nowadays right? Certainly not us. Disgrace. Redbird apparently know nothing about football. Complete 360 in one month. CL at serious risk. BUT hey they have their wage cap policy and apparently another policy that what you spend in summer is enough for the whole season no matter what. Sound logic. 🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪

  16. It very bad….. conceded 2 or more goals at half time in the last three games… The dressing room is in disarray. This is not about signing players or integrating the new ones. Something is broken in the dressing room. You can’t just begin to lose matches with large margins. Something is definitely wrong in the dressing room and this ship needs steadying and fast or else it’s sinking and drowning time. Salernitana can’t wait to play this milan. We are giving our opponent free fun and free points. We just keep giving Napoli most boost with each soulless display. Not that I want Pioli out but it’s bound to happen if he can’t do anything about this. Conceding from set pieces and crosses in to the box like it’s PS2. Will really love to see Tuchel just in case Pioli runs out of ideas and leadership.

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