AC Milan 1-0 Hellas Verona: Gimenez nets winner as Rossoneri toil for victory | OneFootball

AC Milan obtained three important points against Hellas Verona on Saturday night at San Siro, but they were made to work very hard to get them.

For the vast majority of the game it looked as though Verona’s defensive wall would hold firm as Milan struggled to produce the quality required to break through, being reduced mostly to wayward efforts from distance.

However, inside the final 20 minutes of the game the Rossoneri finally did get their goal and it came thanks to a nice combination between Alex Jimenez, Rafael Leao and Santiago Gimenez, with the Mexican heading in from close range after Leao’s square ball.

Milan have gained ground on Lazio who drew with Napoli earlier and Juventus host Inter tomorrow night, so it could yet be a positive weekend in terms of gaining ground on multiple teams above.

Sergio Conceicao made three changes to the starting line-up that lost against Feyenoord in midweek, with the main headline being that Rafael Leao and Christian Pulisic – both not at 100% – dropped to the bench. Yunus Musah and Riccardo Sottil came in, as well as Matteo Gabbia for Strahinja Pavlovic.

After making an error in the third minute of the game in Rotterdam, Mike Maignan will have had his heart in his mouth again in the same minute of this game. Duda was teed up on the edge of the box by Sarr and let fly first time, and the Frenchman flapped at it but it landed on the roof of the net.

The feisty opening to the game can be best symbolised by the two yellow cards inside the first 15 minutes. Coppola was the first to be shown a caution for a foul on Santiago Gimenez, then Musah hauled his man down after a set piece was cleared.

Montipò was barely worked at all in the opening exchanges and the first save he made came in the 25th minute when Tijjani Reijnders let off a rocket of a shot that bounced awkwardly and was tipped around the post. Moments later, he made a diving reaction save with one hand to keep out an in-swinging cross from Joao Felix that looked destined to drift inside the far post.

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Milan had the ball in the back of the net for the first time 13 minutes before the break and it was Gimenez who provided the finish after an excellent through ball from Malick Thiaw, though he made the run a fraction of a second too early and the flag rightly went up.

In the second minute of two added at the end of the half, Milan really should have taken the lead when Gimenez laid a pass across to Musah inside the box, who lashed a shot over the bar while falling over when hitting the target seemed easier.

Conceicao wasn’t happy with what he saw in the first half and decided to make a double change, with Rafael Leao and Alex Jimenez coming on for Sottil and Kyle Walker. It meant a like-for-like change in the left wing and right-back departments.

The opening exchanges of the second half were very much like the first; Verona sat deep aiming to soak up the pressure and allow zero space between the lines, looking to counter and profit from any mistakes that their hosts made.

Just before the hour mark, there was a flash point when Jimenez shoved Duda over inside the Verona box and earned a yellow card, but replays showed the Slovakian midfielder had taken a swipe at the Spaniard. From the resulting corner, Fofana lashed a volley just wide of the upright having connected with it well.

Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images

Milan had a good spell of pressure in which Leao went down inside the box asking for a penalty and then had a shot blocked that looked threatening. Another change then followed as Christian Pulisic replaced Fofana.

Musah had a couple of opportunities to shoot from just outside the 18-yard box having been allowed space, yet the first one whizzed quite comfortably wide of the post and the second was over the bar.

With just over 15 minutes left on the clock, Milan finally got the goal that their second half pressure had suggested was coming. A wonderful give-and-go involving Leao and Jimenez saw the latter chip a ball over the top for the former, who then took Montipo out of the game with a lobbed square pass to Gimenez, giving the Mexican the easy task of heading into an unguarded net.

Not long after a break from Milan had ended with Leao wasting a good shooting opportunity, Gimenez made his way off to a warm ovation from the home fans, being replaced by Tammy Abraham with about 10 minutes to go. Then, Felix made way for Filippo Terracciano.