Milan played their second consecutive goalless draw, as Torino and Bremer slammed the door shut, leaving the Scudetto race wide open.
The pressure was on the Rossoneri after Inter won and Napoli lost 3-2 at home to Fiorentina, so a victory here would send them four points clear at the top of the table. Instead, Inter are now within two points and have a game in hand.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ismael Bennacer, Samu Castillejo and Ante Rebic were late additions to the injury list, joining Alessandro Florenzi, Alessio Romagnoli and Simon Kjaer. Toro had Tommaso Pobega back from his ban, but Rolando Mandragora, Dennis Praet, Antonio Sanabria, Koffi Djidji, Simone Zaza and Mohamed Fares missed out.
Davide Calabria forced a save at full stretch from Etrit Berisha and Alexis Saelemaekers went down too easily under pressure from Samuele Ricci.
Ricci was involved at the other end too, sent clear by a great passing move only to fire wide of the near post.
After the restart, Mike Maignan made a sensational flying save to fingertip Mergim Vojvoda’s strike out of the near top corner.
Bremer was the usual rock in defence, making the block both on Leao after a strong run and the Tonali follow-up.
Belotti thought he’d scored after a sensational first touch to control a ball over the top, but Fikayo Tomori got in the way for a decisive deflection wide.
Tonali turned Ricci with a great first touch on the Junior Messias pass, but Berisha got just enough on the save to take the sting out.
Belotti hit the side-netting after springing the offside trap and Maignan dealt with a Pietro Pellegri attempt.
Alessandro Buongiorno flung himself in the way of a Messias curler from the edge of the area, then Bremer made an absolutely sensational tackle on Messias in stoppages from 12 yards.
Having already taken points off Inter in recent weeks, Toro did the same with Milan.
Torino 0-0 Milan
No surprise with this result as Torino are very difficult to break down at home. The title was lost against Spezia and Salernitana. The only reason the Arsenal of Italy are in this position is because of a Juventus in transition. Once they can build a better team, surely in the summer and with an Inter side that will definitely add some more quality, Milan can forget about winning a title for another 50 years. Blew an 8 point lead last year and blew it again. Nothing learnt and they have not improved but that is what happens when you have rubbish players like Diaz, SaladMakers, brick layer Krunic and Messias. The two biggest teams in Italy are the only ones capable of winning in this sub standard league.
Funny to see inter fans coming out of woodwork and say Milan isn’t that good – what does it say about inter then since Milan is ahead of them and beat them in the derby? LMFAO! Half Milan players aren’t even Serie B material – let that sink in.
@Smh all well and good pointing this out but Inter will be adding the second star very soon and it is games like this and Bologna last weekend where you need to at least find the back of the net. Juventus have 3 stars, will surely add a 4th in due course and sadly Milan will eclipse the 1989-2006 Inter shame when they were dubbed as “the loveable loser of Italian football”.
Got to take your chances.
I’m sure someone would love to win the league… Sad for us fans that none of them wear the Milan Shirt…
Let’s look at facts, inter only beat juve controversially last week if it wasn’t for that they wouldn’t even be in this position again. As for Milan as a fan, they have let me down for another straight week because of bad tactics and not enough quality…
Question is if a poor milan team can be on top of the table with not much quality what would a real quality milan team look like and what kind of success would they have in this league? Juve only won 9 scudetti because of controversial games across 9 years so not going into that but I think It will go down to the last game or so because I think there are more twists to come.
Inter fans should not talk. If they win they will do so with the aid of the referees. Milan have lost points because of referees and right now the difference between Milan & Inter should have been almost 10 points.
Juve10B explain how you cannot find the goal in the last 2 matches then? Do not try to rely on penalties just as Brahim for a miracle and not to trip up on himself lol.
Can anyone remember the last time this team won a penalty? The last time this team remotely played football was back in February vs Lazio in the Coppa Italia. This used to be an exciting team with many players scoring from different positions. Giroud has ruined our style, identity, structure, rhythm and vivaciousness. Now it’s just predictable hoofs to him or aimless crosses to find him.
Milan simply weren’t good enough.
The stat was flown on BT Sport tonight about Milan struggling against the weakest teams in the league or something and it’s true.
Milan lacked somebody that can effectively arrest the game, but that is also partly because the formation and strategy is too easily foiled and it has to change.
Milan’s best performances have been where the space has been left open for them to play, usually while the better teams in the league are themselves busy trying to express themselves, but when it comes to weaker teams Milan can’t meet them on their level to then beat them.
More dross from a “top” side in Italy.
No imagination when Milan play these lower sides who know how to defend. Their main tactic seems to be hoofing it into Giroud and hope he either scores from a header of there’s a lucky shot and deflection somewhere.
The search for the least worst of four sides continues.
The only plus side is that we have such a close race.
Stick Bodo Glimt in this farmers pensioner league and they will win the Scudetto by 10 clear points.
Milan deserved nothing from this and it does not even look like they are fighting for the scudetto or even care. But it doesn’t help when you have the thief Irrati in the VAR control center. The same guy who gave Inter the penalty, lets them take it again and saw nothing wrong with regards to Zakaria. The standard in this league is so infuriating as Theo and Alexis were clearly shoved. They were not penalties but considering how Inter are given them with the slightest touch and also robbing Torino speaks volumes.
Bilan got the most softest penalty last season and still can’t hold 8 points lead at the top.. so, well this team is sh*t
Torino are a very good side under Juric. I penciled this as a danger game back in January,I really respect Juric’s work at Genoa, Hellas and now Verona.
That said , when you have Diaz and Saladmaker as 2/3 guy’s trying to create chances we’re not going to do well. The other third of the trident (Leao) looks very tired since he has no support all year(Rebic).
Overall, not surprised we dropped points.
The only reason Milan are on top is because Inter lack depth to compete on 3 competitions. All this talk about quality is bull. Inter at their best are able to compete with Europe’s strongest teams unlike the rest of Italy. It’s an indictment of Serie A’s lack of financial prowess as a whole but if Inter were eliminated in CL long ago, they would’ve clinched the title by now. Juve would’ve been second if they had Vlahovic since the beginning.
At the end of the day all of the teams in Italy are subpar.
unless milan gets rid of messias, diaz, salemakers, krunic, ibrahimovic, giroud …… and, yes, even leao, the team will get nowhere …..
leao plays 5 good matches per season then drifts aimlessly like a fool …… and theo spends more time down on the pitch than playing …… yesterday he was down on the pitch some eight times ……
this is the second season that milan simply disappears towards the end of the season ……
@michele santorini
Shoulder into theo’s back was 100% a penalty. seen much softer ones given. Politano being a more recent example.
@Vieri
Inter played 2 more European games than Milan and no more than Napoli.
They’re just not very good – just like the three teams around them.
As for being able to compete with Europe’s best, there’s little sign of that either. They’ve played 26 CL games in recent memory and have won 9 of them. The only top European team they beat from that 9 was Liverpool away – who were 2 – 0 up anyway.
Finishing 3rd, 3rd, 4th in the group and L16 isn’t a sign of a team that can compete with the best in Europe. It’s a sign of a team that can’t compete in Europe – just like the rest of Serie A in the CL.
There should be some kind of very active and vigilant moderation in the comments on this site. Therefore, excessively STUPID comments like the one written by someone named Justin right at the opening of the section would never be admitted.
@FERBAN Actually during the same period, Inter also played the Supercoppa and Coppa Italia QF (both of which, Napoli didn’t play in). There was a period between early Feb and mid March – where Inter had to play 10 straight games 3-4 days apart so that may have played at part in their poor run.
Nevertheless I 100% agree with you that Inter are not very good and making the L16 in the UCL is nothing to be proud of for clubs that consider themselves as elite.
@Geedup
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