Poor finishing from both AC Milan and Lazio ensured the first leg of their Coppa Italia semi-final ended goalless.
After beating the Biacocelesti in their Serie A match on Sunday, Milan couldn’t repeat the feat in front of the 17,000 fans at the Stadio San Siro.
They did have the best chance through Hakan Calhanoglu, who missed an open goal midway through the second half, but that was a close as Gennaro Gattuso’s men came to a goal.
As a result, the winner of the second leg on February 28, 2018 will go onto the final.
In contrast to Sunday’s game, Lazio came out strong and had Milan pinned into the own half early on.
Sergej Milinkovic-Savic had the first chance of the game, but his header was easily cleared, then a close range shot from Luiz Felipe was blocked by the Milan defence in a crowded box.
Ciro Immobile managed to get a yard of space, but his shot was wildly blasted into the crowd just left of the six-yard box.
A wonderful cross from Jordan Lukaku almost found Lucas Leiva, but Fabio Borini got a touch just ahead of the midfielder to direct the ball out.
Immobile had shot from distance but it was easily saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma, before Milinkovic-Savic tried the same, with he same outcome.
After the break Milan came out flying and Manuel Locatelli tried his luck from the edge of the area, but the Lazio defence stood firm to block the youngster’s shot.
Unable to fashion many real chances, Milan were limited to long range efforts with Lucas Biglia, then Suso not troubling Thomas Strakosha.
Lazio were still dangerous on the counter and Immobile had a good header excellently saved by Donnarumma.
Another effort from Lazio was blocked by the Milan backline, this time it was Alessio Romagnoli who denied Luis Alberto.
Calhanoglu could, and should have given Milan the lead after Patrick Cutrone’s header was beaten into the path of the Turk, who had an empty net but blasted high and wide.
Donnarumma was on hand again to deny Milnikovic-Savic after he was played in by Martin Cacares.
MATCH FACTS
- AC Milan are unbeaten in their last six games in all competitions: four wins, two draws.
- These two sides had not drawn any of their previous seven Coppa Italia matches (three wins for AC Milan, four for Lazio).
- Lazio have failed to score for the only third time this season in all competitions – all these three games ended in a 0-0 draw.
- Franck Kessie played his 33rd game for AC Milan: he has recorded the most appearances in all comps this season among Serie A players.
- AC Milan had just two shots in the first half tonight: only twice have they had fewer attempts before half-time this season (one vs Fiorentina and AEK).
- AC Milan faced 18 shots, their joint-highest tally in a competitive game this season.
- Ten of these shots were fired by Immobile or Milinkovic-Savic (five apiece).
- Lucas Leiva had the most recoveries in this match, 13.
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