25 November 2023: Fiorentina, now firmly established as a top-half club in Serie A, come to Milan looking for a signature win while the rossoneri would simply settle for putting two wins back-to-back. It won't be a first-choice side for Milan, with both Leao and Giroud missing from the attack, so where will the goals come from? Pulisic, Reijnders and Chukwueze will be expected to make up the slack . . .
Milan (4-3-3): Maignan; Tomori, Thiaw, Calabria, Hernandez; Pobega (Adli 69), Musah (Loftus-Cheek 69), Reijnders (Krunic 90+2); Jovic, Pulisic, Chukwueze (Romero 72)
Fiorentina (4-5-1): Terraciano; Milenkovic, Quarta, Parisi, Biraghi; Artur, Duncan, Bonaventura (Mandragova 67), Gonzalez, Sottil; Beltran (Nzola 67)
The home crowd was hopeful but nervous as the match began hoping for some sort of sustained run of form to appear. That certainly did not seem to be coming any time soon when Gonzalez's shot was blocked by Tomori on the quarter-hour but Bonventura was left unmarked to collect the loose ball and roll it into the net. Ten minutes later Jovic got shown the red card, as discipline continues to be a recurring problem for the club, for losing his temper and retaliating against some rough play in the box on a corner, and Milan were now faced with an hour of playing down both a man and a goal. Would it have mattered? La Viola were frustrating Milan in the middle of the pitch (Milan completing only 43% of their challenged passes, to Fiorentina's 68%) and Terracciano was there whenever Milan got into threatening position. Just before the halftime whistle, the visitors drove a dagger into the home side's hopes - Gonzalez ran onto a Duncan cross in some space, and beat Maignan between the wickets to send the clubs into the dressing room with Fiorentina up by a pair.
Any dim hope of Milan clawing that back in the second forty-five was pretty quickly extinguished. Five minutes after the restart Beltran drove a ball across the face of goal and Biraghi redirected it home for a third, and Mandragova added a fourth ten minutes from full time when substitute Nzola dribbled free in the attacking third and lofted a cross which the Naples-born midfielder calmly headed home. Milan were outplayed and outclassed at home and Stefano Pioli was extremely terse at the post-game press conference. The pressure continues to mount. [scoresheet]
Men of the Match:
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Nicolás González (Fiorentina)
⭐️⭐️ Cristiano Biraghi (Fiorentina)
⭐️ Lucas Martinez Quarta (Fiorentina)
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