Games at the Bentegodi never seem to be easy despite the fact there is often a big gap in the table between Verona and AC Milan, which is why Sunday’s 3-1 win felt quite comfortable compared to recent visits.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) writes this morning, Milan are ‘always under scrutiny’. They have a head coach who there continues to be speculation about the future of, plus the news in the last week regarding the investigation into the ownership situation.
Milan are not missing any drama, but the race towards the Champions League places (in Italy) and the Europa League final continues impervious to the music that surrounds the Rossoneri.
Christian Pulisic scored his ninth goal of the season in the league, Theo Hernandez was overwhelming not only in scoring, while Noah Okafor and Samuel Chukwueze showed why Milan wanted them so badly in the summer.
Second place is the Scudetto of the teams that are not Inter and it’s not clear who can threaten the Rossoneri at the moment. While Juve get tangled up in the problems that have resurfaced, and Milan moved three points clear of them.
The win wasn’t exactly a given because Marco Baroni is performing a semi-miracle with a team rebuilt in January, in addition to the fact that the win in Prague on Thursday night could have had some consequences in terms of energy levels.
Instead, the 3-1 victory was deserved and could have been even bigger if the crossbar hadn’t stopped Okafor and Pulisic, and if Leao hadn’t squandered a big chance having been put through on goal by Olivier Giroud.
Milan went on the attack from the start and they gave the home side a glimmer of hope through Noslin’s counter-attacks. With a solid defence, Verona held their own overall but they were punished by some individual errors.
Theo’s run cut through the midfield and rearguard vertically and the Gialloblu players went down like skittles, then the controversy erupted with the fans and the Verona bench over his celebration.
At the beginning of the second half, the biggest mistake: Dawidowicz lost the ball as the last man having been pressured by Okafor, who was one-on-one and saw his shot saved by Montipo, but Pulisic arrived to tap in the rebound.
Noslin’s rocket from outside the box caused Milan to wobble, but then Chukwueze hammered home a volley to get his first Serie A goal and kill off the game.
Since the beginning of December, only Inter have scored more than Milan’s 36 points. Now the break, then at the end of the month a trip to Fiorentina awaits.
