A spectacular Ismael Bennacer volley consolidated Milan’s leadership with victory in Sardinia, but only the crossbar denied Cagliari in the final minute.

Watch the highlights here.

Serie A Highlights: Cagliari 0-1 Milan

The Rossoneri were top of the table after back-to-back 1-0 wins and had Theo Hernandez available after suspension, but lost Sandro Tonali, Daniel Maldini, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Simon Kjaer. The Sardinians were right in the thick of relegation danger again after two consecutive defeats. Daniele Baselli had COVID-19, with Nahitan Nandez, Kevin Strootman and Sebastian Walukiewicz injured.

Olivier Giroud should’ve scored within seven minutes when Junior Messias knocked down a Theo Hernandez cross, but got it completely wrong from six yards with his right foot.

Serie A Liveblog: Napoli-Udinese, Inter-Fiorentina, Cagliari-Milan

Franck Kessie’s ferocious long-range strike thumped the upright and moments later Brahim Diaz curled wide from an excellent position and Alberto Grassi drilled off target for the hosts.

Giorgio Altare made an important block on Messias from close range and a Theo Hernandez scorcher was fingertipped over the bar by Alessio Cragno.

Milan finally broke through on the hour mark with a stunning strike from Ismael Bennacer. Giroud flicked it up and Bennacer smashed it with his left foot on the volley from the edge of the box into the far bottom corner.

It was an historic goal, as the only other time Milan scored in 15 consecutive away games during one Serie A season was in 1967-68, when they went on to take the Scudetto.

Cagliari fought back, Joao Pedro’s effort deflected inches over the bar, while Cragno made a decisive save one-on-one with Davide Calabria after a rapid counter-attack.

Ante Rebic’s volley was cleared in the six-yard box by Matteo Lovato, who in turn nodded a corner over when anticipating Maignan.

Cagliari had a huge opportunity in the final minute, as Gabriele Zappa’s cross found a diving Leonardo Pavoletti header that bounced onto the crossbar, then Bennacer charged down Razvan Marin’s follow-up, allowing Maignan to smother.

It still wasn’t over, Alexis Saelemaekers sent clear by Bennacer only to be denied by a desperate Altare block.

A scuffle broke out after the final whistle, seemingly when there was some racist abuse from Cagliari fans towards Maignan and Fikayo Tomori.

Cagliari 0-1 Milan

Bennacer 59 (M)

9 thought on “Serie A | Cagliari 0-1 Milan: Bennacer and crossbar decisive in Sardinia”
  1. Milan are playing playing on the edge. Lucky that Maignan did not concede a late penalty but a win is a win. The sooner they can get rid of Brahim the better as the kid is weak and he cannot hit the target with the goal at his mercy. Calabria should have buried the game but I guess you cannot be too fussy when this is a farmers league. Stick Villarreal or Aston Villa in this league and they would win it.

  2. Milan are playing on the edge. Lucky that Maignan did not concede a late penalty but a win is a win. The sooner they can get rid of Brahim the better as the kid is too weak and he cannot hit the target with the goal at his mercy. Calabria should have buried the game but I guess you cannot be too fussy when this is a farmers league. Stick Villarreal or Aston Villa in this league and they would win it.

  3. No need to be salty, but Milan must bury the sitters. Nice winning a match like Juve once in a while bar all the chances Milan had..

  4. Justin , its an entertaining league.

    With the exception of Juve there are no huge spenders which promotes parody and thus close games which make it fun to watch.

    Villa , yeah I don’t think so. I do like them tough.

    Forza Milan !

  5. I enjoyed seeing the referee let the game flow, it seems to be happening a bit more recently in Serie A. Sure, he got a couple wrong, but there were loads of calls that he correctly ignored that would often get given in Italy.

  6. Why is the quality of Serie A broadcast at the worst? The voice of the commentator is far more louder than the sound of spectators in the stadium. Let’s compare it to other spectacular voice of EPL, La Liga broadcasting.

  7. Justin, thank you for your input. Glad there are people like you out there who enjoy a good farmer’s league.

  8. @ Milanwizz result-wise yes, but Milan made many clear cut chances that I don’t know how they weren’t able to score. Diaz and Calabria has an open goal in front of them. Juventus won some matches without having a shot at target!!

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