Juve hit gear as Milan’s struggles deepen
AC Milan’s crisis deepened as they were humiliated 3-0 at struggling Hellas Verona in Serie A yesterday. Elsewhere, Juventus won 3-0 at Bologna to leapfrog Inter Milan into second spot, a point behind Serie A leaders Napoli.
“We have to apologise and understand why these things happen. We were embarrassing,” Milan coach Gennaro Gattuso said. “I think that until Verona doubled their lead, we did well and even deserved to score. Then, as often happens, we collapsed after the first moment of difficulty.
It has been a difficult month for Milan, which have won just two of their five matches since Gattuso replaced Vincenzo Montella as coach.
DEADLOCK
Milan also had its bid for an agreement to end a financial fair play investigation rejected by UEFA on Friday.
Andrea Caracciolo broke the deadlock in the 24th minute when he headed in a corner off the crossbar.
Milan had several chances to equalise but were denied by an imperious Nicolas in goal for Verona.
The hosts doubled their tally 10 minutes after the interval when Daniel Bessa burst down the left and pulled back for fellow substitute Moise Kean to slot past Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Milan tried to get back into the match, but Verona sealed the result in the 77th with a rapid counter-attack as Romulo raced down the right side before crossing for Bessa to tap in.
Milan’s misery was complete in stoppage time when forward Suso was shown a straight red card after a video review of his stamp on Verona midfielder Daniele Verde.
Miralem Pjanic inspired Juventus to a comfortable victory 3-0 win at Bologna, despite the absence of key players through injury, including captain Gianluigi Buffon.
Paulo Dybala was dropped for the second successive match because of poor form.
Bologna started brightly but Juventus took the lead in the 27th when Pjanic curled a trademark free kick into the top left corner.
FIRST GOAL
Pjanic turned provider nine minutes later with a precise ball over the top for Mario Mandzukic to control on his chest and fire into the far side of the net.
Blaise Matuidi scored his first goal in Italian football shortly after the hour. Alex Sandro’s cross was headed away by Filip Helander, but only as far as Matuidi and the France midfielder drove the ball into the bottom left corner on the volley.
Lazio came back from two goals down to draw 3-3 at Atalanta in a thrilling match in Bergamo.
Sergej Milinkovic-Savic scored twice for Lazio with scouts from Manchester United, Chelsea, Barcelona and Monaco reportedly at the game to watch the 22-year-old Serbia midfielder.
Elsewhere, Walter Zenga got his first win in charge of Crotone as Ante Budimir scored to secure a 1-0 win over Chievo Verona.
It was Zenga’s second match and saw Crotone snap a five-game losing streak and move a point above Genoa and Spal, which beat bottomside Benevento 2-1.
Fiorentina drew 0-0 against Genoa.