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.
