This match could have been pretty straightforward, but apparently, Milan did not want it that way. Bologna even offered to help, going down to nine men. With more twists and turns than a roller coaster, it seemed at times that Milan were going to drop points. In the end, they pulled it together, but it wasn't pretty. Milan made it unnecessarily difficult.
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| Football matches are won on the pitch |
After a couple of Bologna attempts, Leão opened up the scoring in the 16th minute with a great goal, albeit with a deflection from Medel's foot. 1-0 Milan. Four minutes later, after a VAR review, Soumaoro was sent off for a foul on Krunić, who was clear on goal just outside the penalty area. Bologna were on 10 men with 70 minutes left to play. Ouch.
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| Opening the scoring |
With tempers flaring for the home side, when Calabria scored his goal in the 35th from an Ibrahimović assist, Milan's 2-0 lead with a man advantage seemed comfortable. A late Tonali yellow and Castillejo injury just before the half should have been an indication that it was going to be anything but comfortable.
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| Happy 100th Milan match, Mister |
Bakayoko and Saelemaekers came on at the half, and I'm not saying this is related, but less than four minutes later, Ibrahimović scored an own goal from a Bologna corner. Bologna 1, Milan 2. I know that when Mihajlović had leukemia, Ibrahimović told him he would do anything for him, even play for free, but this was ridiculous. Energized by this gift, Musa Barrow scored a goal less than three minutes later. 2-2 all. Bologna had drawn level while on 10 men. Ouch.
Soriano, apparently thinking "how difficult can I make this game for my team" was a dare, stomped on Ballo-Touré's ankle. While Valeri didn't initially call it, VAR caught it and he went over to look, and immediately showed Soriano the red card. Bologna were on 9 men. Ouch.
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| Worth the effort |
Pioli went in for the kill, bringing on Giroud for Krunić, playing both he and Ibrahimović for the last 30 minutes against Bologna's nine men. However, in an effort that was less killer and more complacent, it took almost 25 of those minutes before Milan could manage to score again, though, and Bologna had some really good chances during that time, too. It was in the 84th that Bennacer had an amazing volley from outside of the box to make it 3-2 Milan. Ibrahimović cancelled out his own goal by scoring one in the right net in the 90th minute to make it 4-2.
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| Nice to have you back and scoring |
Yes, Milan have an incredible injury crisis right now. But this match should not have been such a struggle. Particularly with a man advantage for most of the match, going up to a two-man advantage, it almost felt like we were going to embarrass ourselves. In a performance to forget, they still pulled off the win, bringing home another three points and maintaining our unbeaten streak in the league. You gotta love this team. It's just a shame that they made it so unnecessarily difficult.
This post inspired by the music of The Primitives' "Crash"