Milan’s season has gone completely off the rails with an embarrassing 5-2 home defeat to a Sassuolo side who had managed just two points from their previous eight games.
The Rossoneri were in a full-blown crisis after two points from three Serie A games, including the 4-0 defeat at Lazio, crashing out of the Coppa Italia and losing the Supercoppa Italiana 3-0 to Inter. Fikayo Tomori, Sergino Dest and suspended Ismael Bennacer were the latest additions to the absentee list, with Fode Ballo-Toure, Mike Maignan, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Alessandro Florenzi, but Theo Hernandez returned after a knock. Stefano Pioli made big changes, including benching off-form Rafael Leao. Sassuolo had just two draws from eight rounds, with Andrea Pinamonti and Jeremy Toljan out of action, but Andrea Consigli returning in goal.
Ante Rebic in his first start since November 8 immediately flashed an angled drive across the face of goal, then Olivier Giroud had the ball in the net on eight minutes with an acrobatic volley off the outside of his left boot from a Theo Hernandez cross, but it was disallowed for a very tight offside call.
Armand Lauriente forced a tricky save from Ciprian Tatarusanu at the base of the near post with a hard and low strike and Sassuolo took the lead moments later.
Domenico Berardi got down the right and what originally seemed to be a shot turned into an assist rolled across the face of goal for the totally unmarked Gregoire Defrel to tap in at the back post.
That shook the Rossoneri’s confidence and they immediately conceded another. Again it came down the right, as Davide Frattesi completed a give and go with Berardi to then smash it in at the near post, taking Tatarusanu by surprise. It was the fourth competitive game in a row that saw Pioli’s men go 2-0 down in the first half.
Milan did react to that shocking one-two with a towering Giroud header into the far top corner from Davide Calabria’s cross to shake them out of the slump.
However, Berardi added to the two assists with his 11th career goal against the Diavolo. He didn’t even have to jump, merely steered in the Hamed Junior Traore corner at the near post with Tatarusanu static.
Saelemaekers saw his cross graze both the head of Giroud and Ante Rebic’s outstretched foot, neither getting the tap-in, then Rebic volleyed straight at Consigli.
Rafael Leao came on for the second half, but within 35 seconds Sassuolo had a penalty when Calabria struggled to keep up with Laurienté, the winger also converting into the near bottom corner past Tatarusanu’s fingertips. It was the first time in their history that Milan conceded four goals in back-to-back Serie A games.
They got another one back as Sandro Tonali’s free kick was flicked on by Pedro Obiang for Rebic’s half-volley from six yards at the far stick. However, it was disallowed because the Semi-Automatic Offside Technology showed Rebic was marginally offside on the free kick.
Rebic ballooned over from a Rafael Leao pull-back at the by-line, but Sassuolo added a fifth when Berardi caught Theo Hernandez napping and set up Matheus Henrique, who had time inside the box to control and drill his finish beneath a slow Tatarusanu.
It was the first time since a 6-1 loss to Juventus in April 1997 that the Rossoneri had conceded five Serie A goals at home.
Many Milan fans left the stadium, therefore missing the fantastic Divock Origi scorcher from distance in off the underside of the crossbar at the far top corner.
Milan 2-5 Sassuolo
Defrel 19 (S), Frattesi 22 (S), Giroud 24 (M), Berardi 29 (S), Laurienté pen 48 (S), Matheus Henrique 79 (S), Origi 81 (M)