For an hour, Ruben Amorim’s Milan looked like a side ready to chase the Serie A title. For the last half hour, they looked like a team hoping the clock would run faster. In the end the Rossoneri held on to beat Atalanta 3-2 on Sunday evening in Milan and climbed to fourth place with 15 points.
Video replays shaped the first half. After 13 minutes Christian Pulisic thought he had scored, only for the offside flag to stand. Midway through the half Yunus Musah’s shot struck the outstretched arm of Honest Obrić, who had just come on, making his senior debut, in place of the injured Sead Kolašinac. The referee first signalled a goal kick, VAR intervened, and Gonçalo Ramos converted the penalty. Shortly before the break Diego Moreira slipped a pass through to Adrien Rabiot, who cut inside and drilled his fourth league goal of the season into the corner.
Soon after the restart, the video referee spotted Kristensen’s arm blocking a Rabiot shot, and Milan had another penalty. This time Marco Carnesecchi guessed right and kept out Ramos, but the relief lasted seconds: from the resulting corner, Luka Modrić’s delivery was flicked on by Rabiot and Mario Gila headed in for 3-0.
Maurizio Sarri’s visitors refused to fold. Nikola Krstović hit the post, substitute Gianluca Gaetano curled in after a pass from Nicola Zalewski, and Krstović then pulled a second goal back from a Raoul Bellanova cut-back. Mike Maignan then had to throw himself in the way of Davide Zappacosta to save the win.
The table now shows Milan four adrift of Inter at the top, with Roma two points ahead in second. They play in England in the Europa League on Thursday before visiting Udinese, while Atalanta turn their attention to Ajax.
