Milan’s title defence in tatters after home humbling by Sassuolo
Milan, Italy - AC Milan’s season went even further off the rails on Sunday after a humiliating 5-2 home defeat at the hands of Sassuolo left them at risk of dropping out of the Champions League places.
Everything that could go wrong for troubled Milan did at a gloriously sunny San Siro, with two goals ruled out for offside and a shocking defensive display condemning the champions to a second straight heavy loss after being hammered 4-0 at Lazio on Tuesday.
Stefano Pioli’s side dropped down to fourth and will find themselves a whopping 15 points off the Scudetto pace if league leaders Napoli beat fierce rivals Roma in Sunday’s late match.
Milan’s title defence lays in tatters and they will also drop out of Serie A’s top four if either Roma or Lazio, who host Fiorentina later in the day, avoid defeat. Domenico Berardi was the star man for Sassuolo, who are 16th after winning for the first time since late October, the Italian having a hand in Gregoire Defrel and Davide Frattesi’s goals which put his team two ahead after just 20 minutes.
Olivier Giroud, who had a fine early finish disallowed, then headed Milan back into the game but Berardi re-established Sassuolo’s two-goal lead with a header of his own from a 30thminute corner.
Pioli brought on Rafael Leao at half-time after leaving his star attacker out of the starting line-up but Milan were three goals down seconds after the restart, Armand Lauriente smashing home a penalty after being brought down by Davide Calabria.
And an awful afternoon turned into a nightmare when Matheus Henrique drilled in the fifth with 11 minutes remaining, leaving Divock Origi to curl home a beautiful but entirely irrelevant consolation goal for the hosts.