AC Milan were held to a 1-1 draw by a plucky Udinese side at San Siro on Sunday afternoon.
A scrappy opening to the game quickly became a poor one for the Rossoneri when Pablo Armero gave the visitors a lead against his former club.
After a wonderful double save from Gianluigi Donnarumma, Armero was on hand to take advantage of standstill defending to power a 17th minute header into the net.
Milan struggled to get into the game, failing to break down Udinese who were intent on getting men behind the ball and making themselves difficult to break down.
Carlos Bacca thought for a split second he had levelled the game for the home side in the 33rd minute when he headed home following a glance, but he was correctly flagged offside and the score remained 0-1.
Bertolacci then provided a lovely pull-back a minute later but M’Baye Niang couldn’t quite reach it as the black-and-white cleared.
Mario Balotelli was introduced to start the second half in place of Juraj Kucka, and his substitution gave Milan the threat needed to draw level.
After Donnarumma had pulled off a spectacular save at one end, the Rossoneri countered in devastating fashion, with Bacca threading Niang through on goal before the Frenchman slotted home, making it 1-1.
In the 55th minute Bacca had another chance with a header from six yards out, but Karnezis saved well to deny the Colombian a deserved goal.
Ultimately, it was to prove to be a frustrating final 30 minutes as the hosts probed and probed yet couldn’t break Udinese down.
Twice Mario Balotelli had chances inside the last 15 minutes with free kicks from 20 yards, however the first one was too weak and was easily saved while the second one found the crowd.
Milan thought they had done enough to win it in the 82nd minute when Bertolacci had a shot from inside the area that was palmed onto the post. Unbelievably, the ball came back down and hit the ‘keeper before rolling towards goal and stopping on the line.
If that wasn’t enough to prove it wasn’t Mihajlovic’s side’s day, then nothing would be. A frustrating 90 minutes in which the side generated enough to win the game, but ultimately lacked the killer touch.
The result leaves Milan still in sixth place with 40 points now, one point behind Roma, while Udinese sit 14th with 27 points, seven clear of the drop zone.