The Milan team won 1-0 at home to Lecce in the 21st round of Serie "A", sportal.bg reported.
The success came in the 76th minute with the debut goal of the reserve Niklas Fühlkrug. He could have had a more expressive result, but the visitors' goalkeeper Vladimiro Falcone made a number of impressive saves. Either way, the “Rossoneri“ recorded their sixth consecutive victory against one of their most comfortable rivals, beating them for the third time this season after 2-0 in the league and 3-0 in the Italian Cup.
Massimiliano Allegri made four changes to his starting line-up after the 3-1 win over Como. Most of them were in midfield, where Samuele Ricci and Ardon Jashari started from the first minute this time at the expense of Yusuf Fofana and Luka Modric, while on the left Pervis Estupinian was preferred to Davide Barthezaga. In attack, Raphael Leao's partner was Christian Pulisic, not Christopher Nkunku. The visitors, on the other hand, were arranged in a 4-3-3 with Ricardo Sotil, Nikola Štulic and Santiago Pierotti in forward positions.
The match began with a minute's silence in memory of the late Fiorentina president Rocco Commisso. In the sixth minute, Matteo Gabbia shot inaccurately with his head, and seconds later, Alexis Salemakers also missed. Three minutes later, Leao scored a good goal, but his obvious offside was immediately flagged. Gradually, the initial home pressure passed and so the next goal opportunities were on the account of Štulic, who made two inaccurate shots. It was not until the 33rd minute that Pulisic threatened Falcone's goal, but the goalkeeper reflected his shot. The remaining shots of the "Rossoneri" until the break were blocked.
Milan's first shots of the second half were also stopped by opposing players. When taking a corner, Gabbia failed to find the target with his header. After another cross from a corner, Estupinjan also sent the ball over the goal with his shot from the arc of the penalty area. The first accurate shot after the break came in the 57th minute, when Falcone knocked a shot on the ground by Ricci. Gabbia headed the ensuing corner again, but this time it was unsuccessful. In the 62nd minute, Pulisic had a great chance to score, but the goalkeeper saved his shot. Shortly after, Adrien Rabiot also failed to score.
In the 73rd minute, Gabbia made another attempt to score after a corner, passing the ball to Fülkrug, but the striker failed to overcome Falcone with his first touch of the match. Shortly after, another substitute - Ruben Loftus-Cheek - did not find his way in front of the goal and missed his chance to open the score. However, in the 76th minute, the visitors' resistance finally fell with a goal from Fülkrug after a cross from Salemakers, who was later forced to be replaced by Zachary Atekame. Shortly before the end of regular time, Jashari also left the field due to a physical problem, giving way to Modrić. Shortly before the end of added time, substitute Nkunku could have made the victory more convincing, but Falcone saved his shot from close range.
With this victory, second-placed Milan collected 46 points and remains only three behind leaders Inter. Lecce, on the other hand, is now in 18th place and in the relegation zone with its 17 points, the same as 17th-placed Fiorentina, but with a better goal difference.