Davide Nicola made a stunning Salernitana debut, as only Ante Rebic’s snapshot managed to earn leaders Milan a point at the Stadio Arechi in this thrilling 2-2 draw.
This was bottom against top in Serie A, although the hosts have two games in hand due to fixtures called off amid their COVID outbreak. They also made their debut under new coach Davide Nicola, their third of the campaign replacing Stefano Colantuono, with numerous signings in January.
Simone Verdi, Norbert Gyomber, Di Tacchio, Mamadou Coulibaly and Schiavone were injured, while the Rossoneri missed Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Simon Kjaer.
It was an aggressive Salernitana start, but Milan scored with their first foray forward. Theo Hernandez cut inside from the left and his through ball found a canyon through the middle of the defence, allowing Junior Messias to calmly pass it into the bottom corner.
Ivan Radovanovic went off with an ankle injury after just 15 minutes, while Luigi Sepe flew to fingertip Ismael Bennacer’s curling free kick out of the far top corner.
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Salernitana equalised when Pasquale Mazzocchi sprinted forward on the counter from his own half, Mike Maignan failed to punch it off Milan Djuric’s head and Federico Bonazzoli improvised with a fantastic over-head kick from 12 yards.
Leao should’ve done better when set up by Olivier Giroud, but he hesitated and allowed Ederson to clear. Leao nearly scored a similar goal to Bonazzoli after the restart, meeting Sandro Tonali’s floated cross, but the acrobatic bicycle kick was inches wide of the far top corner.
Giroud nodded wide and forced a save one-on-one with Sepe, while Ribery rolled across just beyond Djuric.
Maignan made another uncharacteristic howler on 67 minutes that almost proved extremely costly. He was caught in possession and Bonazzoli tried to steer it into the empty net from a difficult angle with a rabona – when the ankles are crossed over and the ball is struck with the back foot – which was going in until the desperate Alessio Romagnoli goal-line clearance.
Salernitana did take the lead moments later, as Mazzocchi got down the right and whipped in a cross for the Milan Djuric diving header into the far bottom corner. Fikayo Tomori and Franck Kessie didn’t do enough to close him down.
The Rossoneri equalised straight away, as Ante Rebic hit it hard and true from outside the box into the near bottom corner and Sepe looked as if he was expecting it the other way, as he was completely wrong-footed.
Salernitana weren’t prepared to settle for a point and threw on two fresh strikers, as it remained open until the final whistle.
Salernitana 2-2 Milan
Messias 5 (M), Bonazzoli 29 (S), Djuric 72 (S), Rebic 77 (M)