Milan were held to their second consecutive 2-2 draw, but considering they were trailing 2-0 after 23 minutes to Lecce, Rafael Leao and Davide Calabria can feel they rescued a point here.
The Rossoneri were feeling the pressure after fumbling a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 with Roma in stoppages and crashing out of the Coppa Italia to 10-man Torino midweek. Tommaso Pobega stepped in for suspended Sandro Tonali, while Mike Maignan, Ante Rebic, Rade Krunic, Fode Ballo-Toure, Alessandro Florenzi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic didn’t make the trip, but Simon Kjaer and Divock Origi were back on the bench. Lecce picked up 11 points from five rounds, including wins over Atalanta and Lazio, as Morten Hjulmand returned from suspension.
It took under three minutes to break through, as Pierre Kalulu lost the ball cheaply and Federico Di Francesco whipped in a cross from the left for Blin, but in his attempt to intercept, Theo Hernandez bundled the ball into his own net off his chest.
Moments later, it should’ve been 2-0, as a Gabriel Strefezza cross-field pass found Di Francesco unmarked down the left and he drew out Ciprian Tatarusanu only to flash the angled drive across the face of goal.
Milan should’ve equalised, but Pobega sprung the offside trap to fire against Wladimiro Falcone’s face and Olivier Giroud ballooned the rebound over.
Di Francesco drilled wide and Lecce scored a second on a short corner, Hjulmand’s cross floating over Pierre Kalulu for Federico Baschirotto to steer his header into the far bottom corner across Tatarusanu.
Gabriel Strefezza stung Tatarusanu’s gloves and Gendrey somehow turned a free header wide at the back post from Di Francesco’s cross.
Pobega turned off target from an Alexis Saelemaekers pass and Falcone flew to fingertip a Giroud header out from under the crossbar.
Milan made changes at the break and looked brighter, Rafael Leao’s finish deflected off target by Baschirotto and a Brahim Diaz cross-shot landing on the roof of the net.
It paid off, as they got one back when Giroud’s attempt was parried and everyone expected Leao to cross it back in from the left, but instead he surprised Falcone to score from a tricky angle.
Davide Calabria brought down Gallo right on the edge of the area, but was decisive at the other end when Giroud knocked back a Sergino Dest cross for the captain’s looping header and 2-2.
Milan wanted to win it and Junior Messias thumped the upright with Giroud’s follow-up cleared off the line by Baschirotto, but the offside flag was up.
There was a huge scare at the other end too, as Gallo nutmegged Calabria to pull back from the by-line, Tatarusanu pushed it onto Fikayo Tomori and the ricochet went inches wide of the empty net.
Lecce 2-2 Milan
Theo Hernandez og 3 (L), Baschirotto 23 (L), Leao 58 (M), Calabria 70 (M)