AC Milan returned to winning ways in the league on Friday night as they beat Lazio 1-0 at the Stadio Olimpico in what was an encounter full of drama.
The game exploded into life not long into the second half when Luca Pellegrini was given his marching orders after receiving a second yellow card, then Rafael Leao had a goal chalked off for a very close offside call.
Just when it looked as though the game was out of reach, Noah Okafor struck off the bench to finally break the resolve of the home side, then Adam Marusic and Matteo Guendouzi were also sent off in the closing stages.
While waiting for the next fixture you should check out 1xBet promo code for Bangladesh. Below are the best stats from the Lazio win…
Tale of the tape
The stats from the game show that Milan had the better of possession (62%), total shots (14 to 11) and shots on target (five to three), but they had a quite significantly lower Expected Goals (1.02 to Lazio’s 1.47).
The home side also had two big chances to Milan’s one, but the Rossoneri had more corners (five to three) and although Stefano Pioli’s men had more yellow cards, the reds is a completely different story.
📊 The stats from the win against Lazio pic.twitter.com/4C6Xs1ToV5
— MilanData📊 (@acmilandata) March 1, 2024
Super subs
A lot has been written about Milan’s goals off the bench this season, and it turns out that they now lead Europe in terms of contributions from substitutes.
With 13 of the 51 league goals coming from bench options, it means the Rossoneri lead the top five European leagues in that particular category.
Not only that, but Okafor and Luka Jovic have combined for eight of them. Their four goals each off the bench are the joint-best in Serie A.
In the top five European Leagues, #ACMilan are the side with the most goals off the bench (13). Noah Okafor and Luka Jovic have scored four each, the joint-most in Serie A with Lautaro Martinez.
[via @Gazzetta_it] pic.twitter.com/31iNopOdFQ
— MilanData📊 (@acmilandata) March 2, 2024
Keeping it clean
A clean sheet away from home has been a long time coming. While there were times where the home side threatened, Mike Maignan was happy not to have to pick the ball out of his goal for the first time in an away league game since January 7.
In the 1-0 win against Lazio, #ACMilan kept their first clean sheet away from home since January 7 (3-0 win against Empoli). pic.twitter.com/fxI3jU9M0W
— MilanData📊 (@acmilandata) March 2, 2024
The wind-up merchant
Unfortunately, as we wrote about earlier, Pulisic has received a lot of abuse from Lazio fans on his Instagram page, with one person stating that “You and your family must die”.
These are truly shameful actions, and something needs to be done as they are way too common in football. However, we can also pick out the positives from what was a very bright performance.
Pulisic had 100% tackle success against Lazio, 100% long ball accuracy and 83% pass accuracy (25 out of 30 passes completed). He had 56 touches, won nine duels, completed four successful dribbles and drew four fouls.
The American created three chances, had two ball recoveries, two accurate crosses, two shots and one tackle, banishing any notion that when he isn’t amassed goal contributions he can be anonymous.
