AC Milan moved into second place in Serie A with an important, if unappealing, victory against Empoli on Sunday, which has shown the side’s ability to earn scrappy wins when needing to.
Milan, as expected, dominated the early stages of the game but failed to make the most of any of their chances until the 40th minute when Noah Okafor found Christian Pulisic on the edge of the box, and the American found the back of the net. The goal was originally ruled out by the referee, but VAR rectified the decision and the Rossoneri held their lead.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) have their ratings from the victory, and they have offered both Milan’s and Stefano Pioli’s performances as a six.
As expected, Christian Pulisic has scored highest in the ratings, earning a 7 from the paper, for his decisive goal. The American proved the side can look to him in the absence of Rafael Leao, and this will be greatly appreciated.
Fikayo Tomori, Ismael Bennacer and Tijjani Reijnders all received scores of 6.5 for their performances.
Mike Maignan, Malick Thiaw, Theo Hernandez, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, and Noah Okafor, who assisted Pulisic’s goal, received a score of 6 from the paper.
Elsewhere, Davide Calabria was given a 5.5, as was Luka Jovic, whose Rossoneri future looks bleak, with reports suggesting the club are leaning away from offering him a new deal.
Yunus Musah earned a 6.5 rating after replacing Reijnders in the 62nd minute. Pierre Kalulu and Samuel Chukwueze earned a score of 6 for their respective performances from the bench.
