Serie A | Verona 1-3 Milan: Rossoneri surge in 2nd

Milan extended their lead over third-place Juventus to three points with great Theo Hernandez, Christian Pulisic and Samuel Chukwueze goals in Verona.

The Rossoneri qualified for the Europa League quarter-finals with Thursday’s win away to 10-man Slavia Praha and Mike Maignan shook off a knee injury sustained in that match, while Rafael Leao and Alessandro Florenzi returned from Serie A bans. Hellas were coming off back-to-back victories and had the opportunity to break clear of the bottom three, but Thomas Henry was suspended and Juan Manuel Cruz injured.

See how it unfolded on the Liveblog.

Fikayo Tomori got a touch to the Theo Hernandez free kick and turned it wide in the opening minutes, but Noah Okafor was being used as a centre-forward and almost scored a stunner with his volley from the edge of the area on a flicked-on corner, denied only by a spectacular Lorenzo Montipò save onto the crossbar.

Moments later, Milan rattled the frame of the goal again, this time with a Christian Pulisic rocket onto the bar from a tricky angle that had beaten the ‘keeper.

Tijjani Noslin flashed an angled drive across the face of goal, while Okafor fired over after a rapid Theo Hernandez counter-attack.

Milan broke through with a remarkable solo effort from Theo Hernandez, who sprinted down the left, rode two tackles and then scored from the tightest of angles. He was then harshly booked for a ‘provocative’ celebration and will be suspended for the next match.

Even Theo Hernandez can't understand how he managed to score from there 🤷‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/SdyAeqEppi

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) March 17, 2024

Kalulu went off with a knock to the left knee at half-time, but Milan doubled their lead when Okafor caught Pawel Dawidowicz napping and surges forward to test Montipò, with Pulisic ready to turn in the rebound. It was also the 5,000^th Serie A goal scored by Milan.

Noslin should’ve got one back, but couldn’t keep the header down on a Fabien Centonze cross, while Karol Swiderski fired straight at Maignan.

Verona did get on the scoresheet with a remarkable Noslin strike, as he let the ball bounce outside the box and smashed it on the half-volley into the roof of the net.

Ondrej Duda and Suslov fired off target, but Rafael Leao failed to restore the two-goal cushion when Montipò rushed out as he got onto the Olivier Giroud pass only to turn wide of an open goal.

Milan did make it 3-1 eventually, as a corner was only cleared to just inside the area for substitute Samuel Chukwueze to thump a splendid volley through a crowd.

Verona kept trying, another Noslin screamer off target, while in stoppages Maignan practically did the splits to get his foot to a Swiderski strike.

Verona 1-3 Milan

Theo Hernandez 44 (M), Pulisic 50 (M), Noslin 64 (V), Chukwueze 80 (M)