AC Milan stumble to draw at struggling Genoa

Date: 16th December 2020 at 10:43pm
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AC Milan held on to top spot in Serie A on Wednesday evening as they were forced to come from behind twice in a 2-2 draw with relegation threatened Genoa at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris.

Two goals from Mattia Destro gave the Grifone the lead twice inside the opening 15 minutes of the second half, but strikes from Davide Calabria and Pierre Kalulu ensured that the Rossoneri left with a share of the points.

Milan will now need to regroup quickly before they face Sassuolo on Sunday afternoon if they’re to break out of the slump that has seen them take only one points from their last two games, whilst Genoa go in search of only their second win of the season when they face Benevento.

Despite the two teams occupying vastly different spots in the table the opening 30 minutes of the contest produced an even affair with neither side able to able to take control, although the Rossoneri enjoyed the majority of the ball.

However, the visitors would start to assert their dominance on the contest as the half time break approached, Ante Rebic and Alessio Romagnoli both going close to breaking the deadlock, but they found Mattia Perin in inspired form in the Grifone goal.

When the whistle to end the first half eventually came there had only been two shots on target and very little in the way of entertainment with neither team having offered much in the way of attacking prowess.

The break did little to invigorate the league leaders and they found themselves a goal down less than three minutes into the second stanza. Gianluigi Donnarumma made a fantastic save after Eidor Shomurodov found himself some space in the Rossoneri box and fired a low effort on target, but he couldn’t control the rebound and Destro was on hand to tap the ball into a wide open goal.

Unfortunately for the Grifone the goal awakened their visitors from their lacklustre performance and they equalised almost immediately, Calabria’s long range effort sneaking agonisingly past the reach of Perin and nestling in the bottom corner to restore parity to proceedings.

However, there was to be another swing in momentum before the second half was even 20 minutes old as Destro once again gave the hosts the lead as he rose above Kalulu to nod the ball past Donnarumma, much to Stefano Pioli’s disgust on the Rossoneri bench.

If the Grifone’s first goal didn’t fully spark the Rossoneri into life their second certainly did as the visitors poured forward in an almost constant stream of attack as they looked to level the contest for a second time.

There was an almost inevitable feeling that Milan would find an equaliser and it eventually came with less than ten minutes to play, Kalulu tapping home from close range to redeem himself after his earlier defensive lapse and ensure that his team returned to Milan with a share of the points.

 

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