Milan has continued their impressive Serie A form by beating Fiorentina 2-0 at the San Siro.
The win extended their lead on the summit to five points after Inter Milan walloped second place Sassuolo 3-0 on Saturday.
Milan comfortably got the maximum points through goals from Alessio Romagnoli and Franck Kessie penalty. They could have recorded a third goal but Fiorentina goalie, Bartlomiej Dragowski saved another spot-kick.
After Thursday’s 1-1 Europa League draw in Lille, Milan planned to continue their good run in the domestic flight without Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Rafael Leao, Ismael Bennacer, Samu Castillejo, and coach Stefano Pioli who contracted COVID.
With such absence, loanee, Brahim Diaz and Sandro Tonali stepped in to help them record the victory.
The visitors on the back of their 1-0 loss against Benevento had a bright start. They recorded a series of corners which were not utilised.
Milan got into the game and took the lead. Unmarked Romagnoli cooly converted Kessie’s corner.
Meanwhile, Fiorentina almost restored parity a moment later through Dusan Vlahovic. The striker ran on to the Franck Ribery through ball, but his powerful shot from a tight angle was fingertipped onto the near post by Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Alexis Saelemaekers later forced a save from Dragowski. The referee then pointed to the spot after German Pezzella tackled a Milan player from behind. Kessie stepped up and made no mistake as he cooly converted the penalty to double Milan’s lead.
As Milan maintain their two-goal lead, they then got another penalty. This was seen as soft after Theo Hernandez changed direction in the box and ran into Martin Caceres. The Uruguayan lightly used his arms to block the Ivorian, but the referee spotted it and awarded a penalty to the hosts.
After VAR consultation, Kessie took the kick but Dragowski palm it away. Milan then defended their lead to record another clean sheet.
Written by: Oladipupo Mojeed