Milan fall eight points off leaders Napoli after failing to break down Cremonese, as Marco Carnesecchi had a magnificent performance in goal with a series of saves.
The Rossoneri had Theo Hernandez and Olivier Giroud suspended, with Mike Maignan, Davide Calabria, Sergino Dest, Alexis Saelemaekers, Alessandro Florenzi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic injured. Rafael Leao was also rested, with Malick Thiaw getting his first start for the club in a new 3-4-1-2 formation. Cremonese were still without a victory this season, missing Cyriel Dessers, Ionut Radu, Vlad Chiriches and Pablo Ascacibar.
Brahim Diaz came sliding in to meet a Junior Messias assist only to fire over.
Ante Rebic was not prepared for Sandro Tonali’s cross when it was a free header from six yards, while Marco Carnesecchi made a desperate save with his trailing foot as Origi was sent clear by Rebic.
A Messias header wide almost turned into an accidental assist for Thiaw, then the defender did get his head to a corner, forcing a great one-handed Carnesecchi save.
Carnesecchi also got his gloves to a ferocious Messias angled drive and when Origi did get the ball in the net after 56 minutes, it was ruled offside.
Rafael Leao was unleashed from the bench and his cross-shot forced another desperate one-handed Carnesecchi save, as it only grazed the head of Messias.
Fikayo Tomori made a decisive block on David Okereke’s counter-attack and Milan introduced youth team striker Marko Lazetic.
Pierre Kalulu volleyed over from the edge of the area, while Messias went down in a tangle with Giacomo Quagliata, but there was no foul.
Lazetic blasted over from a tight angle with the last kick of the game.
Cremonese 0-0 Milan
Lol
Milan is always struggle when facing mediocre team….
They cannot catch Napoli
SMH! Terrible game, can’t finish. Napoli 8 point ahead – will make likely be the biggest meltdown of the century when they don’t win the Scudetto – and it’s coming, Always happens with Napoli.
The quality of their shooting on goal is really bad. If players are allowed to shoot the ball so terrible and haphazardly they shouldn’t be on the 1st team. Even a Donkey will show more quality.
Against these side, with that kind of playing style, you either need to have big players who are aerial threats up top and spam crosses into the box to score from headers or second balls like Inter can do (more successfully last season when they had Perisic), or play a style of quick pas.ses with high pressing the way Lazio and Napoli play (needs a lot of technically quality players).
Milan can’t do either for different reasons. If our players are not fired up and become complacent they could lose points against anyone because they stop playing as a team. Other than that, our strength is in our atypical formation, unpredictability and a couple of individually brilliant players who can decide the games on their own (Theo and Leao). That’s why it works better for us against the top sides rather than minnows who play for a draw and defend with sheer numbers.