Sandro Tonali hailed 10-man Milan for their ‘heart and determination’ to beat Sampdoria. ‘We dug deep into the reserves and put every last drop of energy onto the pitch.’

There was no shortage of drama at Marassi, as Junior Messias opened the scoring and Charles De Ketelaere thought he’d made it 2-0, but it was disallowed for Olivier Giroud’s offside position interfering with play.

Rafael Leao was sent off at the dawn of the second half for a second bookable offence, catching Alex Ferrari on the head with an attempted overhead kick.

That not only reduced Milan to 10 men on the night, but also means he’ll be suspended for next week’s Scudetto showdown against Napoli.

Filip Djuricic equalised, but Giroud converted a penalty that was awarded for Gonzalo Villar’s foolish handball.

“It is the most important, not perhaps as a match after the derby, but in terms of heart and determination,” Tonali told Sky Sport Italia.

“We started strong, scored a goal, had another disallowed, but we proved we’re a great team. We want to keep improving, because we didn’t do everything right today, it was tough after the red card, but we remained a team. We still have that desire to win and it was clear this evening.”

Tonali extended his contract with Milan this week to June 2027, doubling his salary to €3m per season, but above all committing his future to the club.

“Not just me, the whole team today dug deep into the reserves and put everything we had left onto the pitch. We had to get the last drops of energy to earn this victory.

“I feel Milan within me, I felt the tension a little today, but our fans are always there to give us that extra push.”

The injuries keep piling up and now Leao is suspended against Napoli, but Tonali assures Milan are prepared.

“We knew from the start of pre-season that we’d have to play every three days and worked really hard to be ready for this situation.”

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