Cagliari 1-1 Milan: Higuain first goal not enough for victory

By Oliver Fisher -

Milan drew against Cagliari on Sunday evening in Serie A. The Rossoneri responded to Cagliari’s quick goal in the second half, with Gonzalo Higuain’s first goal for the club, but it was not enough to take three points back home for Gattuso’s men.

The home side made the brighter start to the game, with Serbian midfielder Filip Bradaric firing over in the opening few minutes with a first time shot from the edge of the box.

Not long after, Cagliari took the lead. A counter-attack found Leonardo Pavoletti in behind, with Gianluigi Donnarumma tipping his shot onto the post. However, Joao Pedro was there to follow up and tuck home the rebound and make it 1-0.

After a sloppy opening 10 minutes the Rossoneri carved their first opportunity as Hakan Calhanoglu was found in space on the left side of the box, but he dragged his shot wide of the near post.

Full-back Ricardo Rodriguez then forced Cragno into a diving save with a half-volley from 25 yards following a nice flick past his opponent.

Cagliari hit the woodwork again moments later through Nicolo Barrella; the midfielder hitting a volley with venom towards the far post, but the left upright coming to Donnarumma’s rescue.

Just before the half hour mark Giacomo Bonaventura had a golden chance to level for Milan from Davide Calabria’s teasing cross, but his half-volley was over the bar from five yards out.

Milan started off the second half very actively and dominated the match. Eventually this brought its fruit and Gonzalo Higuain took advantage of a mistake made by the opponent’s defense and netted his first goal for the club to equalize.

In the 66th minute, Gattuso wanted to freshen things up and replaced Giacomo Bonaventura with Bakayoko. After that Samu Castillejo replaced Hakan Calhanoglu to add some pace for the final minutes of the match.

Milan continued dominating, but without the right end product. Gattuso tried to make a change for the last minutes, with Laxalt replacing Ricardo Rodriguez on the left flank.

Suso could have won the match for Milan in the dying minutes, but his left-footed curler went just wide Cragno’s net. Minutes after Higuain’s header off Laxalt’s cross also missed but not much.

Unfortunately, Milan’s last-gap pressing was of no use and Gattuso’s men return to Milano with one point only.

 

 

 

 

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