AC Milan made it six wins in a row in all competitions with an impressive 2-1 victory against Fiorentina at the Stadio Artemio Franchi on Saturday night.
The three goals in the game were scored inside a frantic seven-minute period in the second half. The first came from Ruben Loftus-Cheek as he finished from close range after Rafael Leao’s feed to get his ninth goal of the calendar year.
Fiorentina then equalised when Alfred Duncan was given the freedom of Florence to run forward and fire into the bottom corner, but Tijjani Reijnders put Rafael Leao through on goal and he sat the goalkeeper down to restore the advantage.
That would be enough for Milan to seal the three points and in the process move six ahead of Juventus, who were beaten late on by Lazio earlier in the evening.
Head coach Stefano Pioli made four changes to the team that beat Hellas Verona before the break with Alessandro Florenzi coming in for the suspended Theo Hernandez, Malick Thiaw partnering Fikayo Tomori, Samuel Chukwueze getting the nod over Christian Pulisic and Olivier Giroud returning to lead the line.
Milan started the game on the front foot, and Milenkovic did brilliantly to cut out a low cross from Tijjani Reijnders that Giroud was ready to fire on goal. From the resulting corner, the French striker headed over from a good position.
Giroud was again left to rue a missed opportunity in the eighth minute when Chukwueze did brilliantly to spin his man and provide a cut-back which was met with good contact but ended up straight in the hands of Terracciano.
Rafael Leao began to get himself more involved as the minutes ticked by, and he managed to shimmy his way into the box and into a good shooting position, yet he bent his effort wide of the far post as he fell over while he hit it.
Leao then turned the provider for his fellow wingman Chukwueze, standing up a gorgeous cross for the Nigerian whose header was saved by Terracciano. He was called into action from the corner that followed, parrying a shot against Leao before Belotti cleared it off the line, though the offside flag did seem to be up.
Fiorentina’s first big chance came just before the half-hour mark when Ikone slipped Belotti through in behind, though his first touch took him wide and Mike Maignan made a good save. Ikone then lashed a shot into the side netting from the corner when he should have done better, and moments after that Tomori did well to block a shot from Belotti after a bad giveaway at the back.
Terracciano was called into action a couple more times when Reijnders fed Leao who got a shot away from a narrow angle that he stopped fairly easily while Chukwueze wanted the cut-back, then Reijnders had a shot of his own that looked a weak effort but was turned around the post.
The penultimate chance of the first half fell to Leao, who took up the position of centre-forward at times with Giroud dropping deeper. A direct free-kick found his run in behind and the Fiorentina keeper saved well with his legs to deny the low shot on the spin.
Probably the best opportunity of the opening 45 minutes fell to Giroud, who hit a cut-back from Leao first time over the bar despite perhaps even having time to take a touch and pick his spot from around the penalty spot.
Pioli decided to make a change at the break, with Matteo Gabbia coming on for Thiaw given that the German was booked in the first half.
Milan took the first chance of the second half, and it was Ruben Loftus-Cheek who got his ninth goal of 2024. A header from Leao found Chukwueze out wide and his low cross looked easy for clear for Milenkovic, but he slipped and that allowed RLC to eventually set himself and fire into a virtually unguarded net.
Fiorentina equalised less than three minutes later and it was a sloppy goal to concede. Duncan picked up possession inside the Milan half and was allowed to stroll forward to just outside the edge of the box, picking out the bottom corner with a lovely shot that he was in acres of space to get away.
Parity would not last long when Milan’s advantage was restored as Leao went from provider to scorer. Reijnders played a brilliant through ball to the former Lille man who strode through on goal and sat Terracciano down with a drop of the shoulder, leaving an empty net to tap the ball into.
Pioli opted to make a couple more substitutions just after the hour mark, with Reijnders and Leao – arguably the two best players to that point – coming off for Yunus Musah and Noah Okafor.
Maignan was called upon to make a one-handed save to deny Belotti’s shot from the edge of the box as the home side set about trying to get themselves back level.
La Viola continued to knock on the door and had the upper hand going into the final 20 minutes, with Maignan again making an excellent stop this time to deny Mandragora who had latched onto a long throw that wasn’t dealt with and lobbed a shot goal-bound.
Another alteration came for Milan with 17 minutes left on the clock as Christian Pulisic came on for Chukwueze. He nearly made an instant impact too when he was put through on goal by Musah and fired into the bottom corner, yet the offside flag was raised as the pass was a bit late.
The final change came inside the final 10 minutes as Luka Jovic came on against his former club, taking the place of Giroud.
Fiorentina had one final chance three minutes into the five added with a header from Gonzalez that was straight at Maignan, and that came after Loftus-Cheek got a yellow card for a stray arm that means he will miss the Lecce game.
Forza pioli
Good win but it should have been a bigger one due to us being ineffective in front of goal we made it a lot more nervy than necessary. Deserved win nevertheless but the match could have been settled after the first half.
It was a decent game though. No team is perfect and some players are still young, i.e. they still have room for improvement. The main issues to address are some simple mistakes in defense and overreliance on Leao.
Yeah it was a good match no doubt there but after the first 25 minutes or something we could have bagged maybe 4 goals and that was down to a missed header by chukwueze and leao not passing the ball to the nigerian on an open goal as well. Add to that giroud missed several good chances so i wouldnt say it was an age thing but simply lacking of effeciency, We did make it a lot more difficult for ourselves than we should have but i think we are the deserved winners nevertheless.
Typical Milan game I supposed. Great to see Chukwueze finally performing.
Just wasn’t sure why we seems to switch to a 442 and playing an open game when in the lead.
Chukwueze probabæy was the motm for me so he definitely had a more consitant perfromance than we have generally seen up until now.
We made some chances but in the end the goals came from opposition mistakes.
That might be but we could easily have been infront with 3-4 goals scored at half time as i see it and that is down to lacking effeciency, The ten good minutes fiorentina had in the first half was also because we kept messing up some simple passes and badly positioning us.
Terracciano made some very good saves so did Mike for us. In the end it was 17-14 in shoots. Our def was horrible as per usual. If they’re like that vs Roma who have real quality up front we in trouble
yeah we should be more effecient.
We were missing Theo who is a big part of our attack and we still sliced through Viola. And away is never easy.
I get that but we nevertheless missed some sitters that was created without theos help and we should at the bare minimum have won with two more goals than fiorentina but regardless of the small margin we did showcase a lot of good play today but also made some rather horrible mistakes as well. Not sure we can allow ourselves to do the same against roma or if we reach the europa league round or when we meet inter so there is a lot of work to still be done.
…or if we reach the next europa league round…
Rather horrible mistakes? Besides from the goal no. We were better defensively with Gabbia.
Gabbia didnt enter the match before the second half and in the first one we did give them some open chances due to some horrible mistakes in our passing and positioning, I think we were fully in control in the first 25 minutes and pretty much could have closed the match by then. Fiorentina then had ten good minutes, Firoentinas goal was also down to a collapse as we shouldnt have allowed them to equalize as fast as they did.
Ruben ‘the poor man’s Jude’ Loftus-Cheek
It was a decent game though. No team is perfect and some players are still young, i.e. they still have room for improvement. The main issues to address are some simple mistakes in defense and overreliance on Leao.
Good win, looks like team is coming together. Florentina had a fairly easy time getting near our penalty area, something that we should improve in our Roma game
Yeah in summer we can fix it but need a short term solution for the Roma games and the derby.
Frankly I don’t care as much for the derby as long as we play as a team. I’d like to win, but that’s just a battle during a time when the opponent has the upper hand and a more synchronized team. To me, the Roma games are more important than the derby.
We lost both derbies in 06-07 when we won the CL, and also the next derby also in 2007 but nobody cared.
Pioli needs to learn to park the bus and hustle with a weaker team
This is Fiorentina away. You take the win and don’t complain. It’s never easy to play against them away at home and we often end up on the losing side away there.
And we were missing Theo.
Its not complaining to point out ineffeciency in front of goal, its simple facts.
Im gladly taking this win though and you do realize that i basically never complains about milan, the coach or the players but we did nevertheless miss a lot of open opportunites that could have shut down the match already in the first half ? instead we had to fight to the bitter end, again simple facts.
Both sides had chances and Milan was still clinical enough to take a really difficult win. It was a great win that wasn’t in doubt.
Im not saying its not a great win but we made it a lot more difficult for us than necessary and yes they had some as well but in first half their chances was down to bad passing from us and badly positioning us but overall i think we played a good game but there is nevertheless things to improve,
You’re right. We’re missing chances up front, but we’re creating plenty. Same can be said of inattention at the back – making same mistakes. missed assignments and closing players down soon enough, allowing shots on goal.
Duncan had 4 defenders running at him, all a step behind, allowing him to get that shot off.
This sort of inattention against Inter will result in another Derby defeat.
Absolutely it costed us in both ends and this should be sorted out.