AC Milan Regains Winning Form against Lowly Cesena
AC Milan was posed with a match they had to win. A loss to a Cesena side that is trying to stave off relegation would be one of the lowest lows the Rossoneri could deal with this season. Add the fact that it was being played at home, the San Siro? It was must-win territory.
And win, they did.
Their successes began in the 22nd minute when Giacomo Bonaventura received a feed from Jeremy Menez and laced a shot on the ground into the bottom-right hand corner. The laser gave Milan a 1-0 lead. The score would remain that way for much of the match until Milan was given a penalty kick in the 90th minute. Giampaolo Pazzini buried the penalty kick to give Milan the permanent 2-0 score.
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Milan’s current place in the standings is still unclear due to a couple of matches being rescheduled from this weekend. Two teams that would be directly ahead of them, Genoa and Sampdoria, will have to play their 24th match on Tuesday.
Three of Milan’s next five matches should turn out to be easier ones as they will play Chievo, Verona and Cagliari in that span. All three have struggled this season and are either in a relegation position or just outside of one in the league table.
Some of the problems Milan has had were still present in this game though. In the first half, they held 67% possession but only had one shot on goal and four goal attempts to show for it. To show how odd Milan can be, they held less than 50% possession in the second half and had 10 goal attempts and seven off target. You can only complain about statistics so much, however, considering Milan came out with the three points and their eighth win of the season.
As the standings hold before the late Sunday fixture between Fiorentina and Torino, Milan is five points out of the Europa League qualification position currently held by Fiorentina in fifth. While Genoa and Sampdoria are now only two points ahead of Milan and set to face each other, the Rossoneri could also be jumped by Inter or the aforementioned Torino depending on their 24th match.
Eighth-place Milan (8-9-7) will take on 16th-place Chievo (6-6-12) on the last day of the month. Second-to-last-place Cesena (3-7-14) will face 13th-place Udinese (7-7-9) on March 1.
While a European competition finish is still possible, Milan needs to worry about staying in the upper portion of the table. With three of their next five matches against struggling teams and another in that span against Fiorentina, Milan can still make a run to a higher position.
Will the real AC Milan please stand up?
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