(Football news) After AC Milan qualified for their first Champions League quarter finals since 2011, they suffered a disappointing draw against Salernitana. Second-half goals by Salernitana forward Boulaye Dia cancelled out Olivier Giroud’s header as champions AC Milan were held to a 1-1 home draw. It meant that Milan are now winless in three matches in a row in all competitions. AC Milan are fourth in the standings on 48 points and it already looks like the title is already out of reach this season.
The result meant that AC Milan are now one point behind third-placed Lazio and two points of Inter in second but mainly they are 20 points behind runaway leaders Napoli. Milan should have opened the scoring in the 23rd minute but Rafael Leao sent the ball wide of the far post, while Brahim Diaz narrowly missed the chance to slide it home from close range. Six minutes later, Giroud came close to scoring with an acrobatic overhead kick which just went inches over the bar.
The France international finally gave Milan a 1-0 lead just before the interval when he headed in from a corner by Ismael Bennacer, leaving Guillermo Ochoa unmoved. Leao had another chance to double the hosts’ lead in the 52nd minute when a shot attempt by Bennacer hit the Portuguese on the edge of the box and went wide. The Portugal forward had scored in the reverse fixture on Jan. 4 but since then he hasn’t found the net in his last seven Serie A games for the first time since the end of the 2020-21 season.
Salernitana deservedly equalised in the 61st minute through Dia who was set up by defender Domagoj Bradaric and made it 1-1 with a first time finish. Milan were desperate to regain the lead but late chances by defender Alessandro Florenzi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic went in vain. Stefano Pioli’s side did not field any Italian player in the playing XI in a Serie A match for the first time since the 1994-95 season. Salernitana sealed their first-ever league point at the San Siro and are now 16th on 26 points as they further extend their lead over the relegation zone to seven.
“There was no mental or physical decline, we simply had to do more,” Pioli told Sky Sport. “We conceded an avoidable goal from a throw-in. Then the game became edgy and we weren’t able to pull ahead. A missed opportunity.”
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