Rijeka humble woeful AC Milan

Date: 7th December 2017 at 8:52pm
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AC Milan’s unbeaten run in the Europa League came crashing to a halt on Thursday, as Gennaro Gattuso’s side fell to a 2-0 defeat at Rijeka.

The hosts wasted little time in looking to exploit Milan’s second string line-up, with Jakoc Puljic curling home a wonderful freekick early in the first period.

The Croatian side came flying out of the blocks after the break too, and sliced through the Rossoneri’s defence to double their advantage less than 90 seconds after the interval. A rapid move allowed Mario Gavranovic to steal in and tuck home a low cross, securing a famous victory.

Despite the defeat, Milan go through to the next round as group winners, whilst third-placed Rijeka see their own European adventure come to a close.

With nothing to lose, Rijeka began the match on the front foot and looked to carve out an opening in Milan’s defence. Their positive play paid off after only seven minutes, as the hosts took a shock lead.

Having been brought down on the edge of the box, Puljic stepped up to curl an exquisite freekick over the wall and beyond the reach of Marco Storari, as the ball nestled into the back of the net courtesy of the post.

Milan struggled to get over the early setback and Rijeka enjoyed the lion’s share of possession, as well as offering the greater attacking threat. Indeed, custodian Simon Sluga barely had a touch in the opening half an hour.

Puljic had a wonderful opportunity to get a second midway through the first half, as the Croatian met Marko Vesovic’s deep cross at the back post. Under pressure from Cristian Zapata, the goalscorer could only nod wide from close range.

The Diavolo lacked fluidity in their movement, and saw a number of attacks break down due to sloppy passing. Although they were seeing far more of the ball, they could not find a way through the determined Rijeka defence to fashion a clear sight on goal.

It took more than 40 minutes for them to register a shot, but Milan came within inches of equalising when it finally did arrive.

An inch-perfect lobbed pass from Zapata released Patrick Cutrone in the area, and the teenager did well to evade his marker before looking to chip the onrushing Sluga. Despite looking destined to land in the back of the net, his effort wouldn’t come down in time and nestled on the top of the goal.

Almost immediately from kick-off in the second half, Rijeka had doubled their lead. A threaded pass from by Leonard Zuta allowed Zoran Krvzic to cut the ball across the face of goal from the byline, and Gavranovic got in front of Gabriel Paletta to slot beyond Storari.

As the match wore on, Milan found it difficult to break down the hosts’ defence, and struggled to make good use of the ball in the final third. The Italian outfit won a number of corners, but found little joy from the set-pieces being swung in.

The Rossoneri were taking a more direct approach and it almost paid off midway through the second period. A tantalising Davide Calabria cross into a crowded area was met by Cutrone, but the forward’s header was into the ground and bounced over.

Indeed, the visitors were ramping up the pressure and Lucas Biglia almost scored a carbon copy of the freekick scored by Puljic. From the same area of the pitch, the Argentine’s effort looked to be heading in, only to curl away at the last moment.

However, the momentum Milan looked to build soon fell flat, and Rijeka were able to prevent their more illustrious opponents from registering a single shot on target throughout the match.

 

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