AC Milan ended their season with three goals and three points as they beat Hellas Verona 3-1 at San Siro thanks to two late goals.
Milan took the lead late in the first half when Hien fouled Brahim Diaz and a penalty was awarded after a VAR check which Olivier Giroud scored, but Davide Faraoni’s header restored parity and boosted Verona’s survival hopes.
Rafael Leao scored in the 85th and 92nd minute to bail the Rossoneri out after what was a sub-par performance with two excellent individual goals, securing a win and giving Zlatan Ibrahimovic a fitting send-off.
Milan could finish no higher than fourth, but with news that Spezia lost 2-1 against Roma it means Verona face a relegation play-off against the Ligurians to decide who goes down.
Stefano Pioli made the decision to field an unchanged line-up compared to the team that beat Juventus last weekend to confirm a top four finish and thus a spot in the next edition of the Champions League.
As expected, the moments prior to kick-off were all about one man: Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The club announced yesterday that he will be leaving when his deal expires and he was moved to tears by the pre-match tributes that the fans paid.
The first half-chance of the game fell to Rafael Leao who was looking to celebrate his contract renewal with a goal, and he received a feed from Sandro Tonali on the far side of the box before seeing a shot deflected onto the roof of the net.
Milan won three corners in a row and were well on top in the early stages and as news came through that Spezia were winning at Roma – putting a huge dent in Verona’s survival hopes – Junior Messias curled a shot wide of the far corner.
There were some half-hearted appeals for a penalty in the 20th minute when Theo Hernandez beat two men to surge deep into the box, going down under a challenge from Hien who got enough of the ball.
Verona needed to go in search of a goal to get themselves in front and put some pressure back on Spezia but they were pinned in their own half, with Montipò happy to see a first-time strike from Messias deflect wide of the near post.
The first venture forward from the away side came when Ngonge led a three-on-three break and snaked his way around Malick Thiaw, with his ball bobbling across a dangerous area inside the box but eventually to safety.
Davide Calabria tried his look from distance on the half-hour mark, firing a half-volley from what must have been over 25 yards out that was ultimately comfortably saved by Montipò. He then tried another first-time shot from Messias’ knockdown a couple of minutes later, with that one going for a throw-in.
Milan created a big chance to open the scoring when some nice combination play between Theo, Leao and Giroud saw the latter tee up the former for a cross that fizzed across the six-yard box with nobody to turn it in.
As the clock ticked into the two added minutes at the end of the first half, Milan were awarded a penalty. A naive challenge from Hien on Brahim originally went unpunished but VAR chief Maurizio Mariani called Paolo Valeni to have a look at it.
Giroud took on the responsibility from 12 yards looking to make it five goals in his last three games and he made absolutely no mistake, sending Montipò the wrong way with an excellent penalty.
Milan sliced through Verona five minutes into the second half when a ball into Leao was flicked around the corner to find Theo Hernandez’s diagonal run and though he was in behind he did not trust his right foot and chose to square towards Giroud, yet it was cut out in a nick of time.
Verona players were incensed when Mike Maignan came racing off his line to clatter through Ngonge as he tried to run through on goal claiming it should be a foul and a red card, though the Frenchman got all of the ball even if it was a strong challenge.
The Gialloblu bench and coaching staff began to get more and more incensed, with ex-Milan defender and assistant coach Salvatore Bocchetti getting a red card for needlessly protesting an obvious foul.
Ngonge should have done better when he got away from Tomori down the right side but he hammered a shot into the side-netting with two team-mates rightly pointing out that they were ready for a cut-back.
Not long after Tommaso Pobega and Charles De Ketelaere came on, Hellas Verona equalised. Milan totally switched off following the double change, with Lazovic flicking a cross over to the far post where Faraoni was waiting to head in, though there were questions about a push in the back on Theo.
Leao had a header blocked inside the box with 15 minutes left on the club and there were huge appeals for a penalty. The ball definitely struck Faraoni’s arm, but after a VAR check nothing was given.
There were two more changes made with just over six minutes left as Alexis Saelemaekers and Alessandro Florenzi came on to fully change the right flank, with Messias and Calabria going off.
Just as it looked like filtering out to a disappointing draw, Leao unlocked the game. He picked up the ball in midfield and went on a typical surging run through the middle, finishing with a beautiful whipped strike into the bottom corner.
Just as news filtered that Roma had scored to make it 2-1 against Spezia, Leao made it 3-1. Again he took possession of the ball inside his own half, playing a one-two with Saelemaekers before dropping both the defender and the goalkeeper to tuck into an empty net.
Saelemaekers had the final chance of the game when he cut in onto his right foot and curled an effort onto the roof of the net, and Verona got confirmation that Spezia had lost thus setting up a relegation play-off to determine who goes down.
