Rafael Leao scored one and assisted another for Ruben Loftus-Cheek, as Milan go six points clear in second place and Fiorentina pay tribute to Joe Barone.
This was an emotional evening at the Stadio Franchi, the first match since Viola director Joe Barone’s death, so the Italo-American was remembered with banners, flags and a minute’s silence, with children releasing white balloons and his jersey marking his seat in the stands. He had a heart attack just before the planned game with Atalanta, so that fixture was called off.
Nico Gonzalez and Christian Pulisic were not at 100 per cent after international duty, plus Giacomo Bonaventura and Theo Hernandez suspended, with Pierre Kalulu, Simon Kjaer and Tommaso Pobega injured.
Olivier Giroud only prodded the finish at Pietro Terracciano after a Samuel Chukwueze sprint, then the goalkeeper parried a Chukwueze free header at the back post. On the resulting corner, Terracciano kept out a Fikayo Tomori header, then Leao was offside and denied by the Andrea Belotti goal-line clearance too.
Andrea Belotti sprung the offside trap on a Jonathan Ikone through ball and Mike Maignan rushed out for a big save, then on the corner Ikone drilled just wide.
It remained wide open, with Leao testing Terracciano from the tightest of angles, then forcing another save before Giroud ballooned his assist over the bar.
Milan took the lead straight after the restart, as Leao ran on to the Chukwueze through ball and made a cheeky back-heel flick roll across assist, sending Nikola Milenkovic to ground and giving Loftus-Cheek time to control and turn in from six yards.
These replays of Rafael Leão's assist for RLC 🤤 pic.twitter.com/i7sgxhXjvW
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) March 30, 2024
However, it took barely 120 seconds for Fiorentina to equalise, as Alfred Duncan gathered from Lucas Beltran and drilled into the far bottom corner from the edge of the area.
Moments after that, it was 2-1 to Milan as Leao gathered in midfield from Tijjani Reijnders, sprinted past Milenkovic and calmly dribbled around Terracciano to deposit into an empty net.
There's no stopping Rafael Leão when he gets up to speed ⚡️
This second half has been just as electric! pic.twitter.com/cIlArlz4gp
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) March 30, 2024
Ikone stung Maignan’s gloves and Terracciano beat away an Alessandro Florenzi scorcher, but Maignan’s save was toughest on Belotti, using his trailing hand to push the strike out of the near top corner.
Maignan made another fantastic one-handed save on Rolando Mandragora’s half-volley lob and Christian Pulisic was clearly offside when scoring on the counter-attack from a Yunus Musah assist.
Pulisic came close again in stoppages, denied by Terracciano at the near post.
Fiorentina 1-2 Milan
Loftus-Cheek 47 (M), Duncan 50 (F), Leao 53 (M)
Player statistic
| Cristiano Biraghi |  |
13' | ||
| 21' | |
Malick Thiaw | ||
| Lucas Martínez Quarta | |
24' |
| 47' |  |
Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Assist: Rafael Leão) | ||
| Alfred Duncan (Assist: Lucas Beltrán) |
|
50' | ||
| 53' | |
Rafael Leão (Assist: Tijjani Reijnders) | ||
| 90' | |
Fikayo Tomori | ||
| 90+3' | |
Ruben Loftus-Cheek |
Match statistic
