After six games without a win in a row, AC Milan put down an exclamation marker and recorded their highest win of the season with a 5:1 victory over Cagliari Calcio. The players’ mothers were also remembered in San Siro
Inter Milan showed the way on Friday evening, their 5:0 win over Frosinone Calcio was the highest win of the season for the new and supremely confident Italian champions. On Saturday evening, city rivals Milan also got their frustration out of the way, beating Cagliari Calcio 5:1. The Rossoneri have never won by a greater margin this season.
Given their recent form and six consecutive matches without a win, the result came as something of a surprise. However, the performance of coach Stefano Pioli’s team was not particularly exhilarating for a long time. The eye-catcher of the opening period: all 22 players on the pitch had female names above their shirt numbers – ahead of the upcoming Mother’s Day, seven Serie A clubs (including Genoa, Torino, Verona, Lecce and Udine) had decided to honour the names of the players’ mothers
Bennacer from nowhere
In a very mixed first half, in which Cagliari rarely ventured out of their shell, Milan took the lead out of nowhere: after two blocked attempts, Bennacer was in the right place to slot into the empty net (35′). Pioli was also unimpressed with his team’s performance and brought on three new players.
Rafael Leao, one of the trio, had a chance to make it 2-0 just four minutes after the restart, but his direct shot from Pulisic’s cross crashed against the crossbar (49). Cagliari became bolder in this phase, but Milan keeper Sportiello deflected Prati’s low shot around the post (57′).
Reijnders-Hammer takes the tension out
At the other end, the Champions League semi-finalists from the previous season mercilessly countered the underdogs, Rafael Leao played the perfect pinpoint pass – and Pulisic finished it off (59′). Just four minutes later, however, Nandez put a direct shot past Sportiello after a fine Zappa cross (63′).
The game was then decided a quarter of an hour before the end when Reijnders struck from the second row into the bottom left corner (74′). Within three minutes, Rafael Leao (following an assist from Bennacer) and Pulisic (after a cross from Okafor) also increased the score (83rd, 86th).
While Cagliari (just three points ahead of 18th-placed Udine, who have one game less to play) still have to worry about staying up, Milan cemented second place. The Rossoneri visit Torino in exactly one week’s time, while Cagliari host penultimate-placed Sassuolo the following day (12.30pm).
