AC Milan Must Continue to Invest in Their Talented Crop of Rising Stars

The first time AC Milan met Sassuolo ended in embarrassment. On January 12, 2014, they threw away a 2-0 lead to lose 4-3 away to the Neroverdi, who at the time were fighting simply to remain in Serie A. Ever since that match, Milan have struggled against Eusebio Di Francesco’s men.

Sassuolo had won four out of the six league encounters between the two sides leading up to their meeting on Sunday evening. And, after an hour of football at the San Siro, it didn’t look like this pattern was going to change.

At 3-1 down, Milan’s Sassuolo hoodoo was set to continue. However, three goals in the final 20 minutes ensured a 4-3 victory for Vincenzo Montella’s side. While the performance was shaky, the result felt like a turning point—and it had a lot to thank youth for.

Milan started the match well, taking control of ball possession and building some wonderfully intricate attacking moves. When Giacomo Bonaventura collected the ball from Mattia De Sciglio before lashing in a low strike that deflected beyond Andrea Consigli, everything appeared to be going to plan.

However, within a minute, the positive start had been immediately undone.

Ignazio Abate, back in at right-back for the injured Davide Calabria, passed the ball straight to Matteo Politano. The 23-year-old winger then proceeded to coolly slot home past an advancing Gianluigi Donnarumma. It was a composed finish from an in-form attacker (this was Politano’s fourth goal of the campaign), but it all came about because of one costly individual error.

From then on, Milan’s control on proceedings wavered before a complete malfunction seemed to assure them of defeat.

Claud Adjapong appeared to have put Sassuolo 2-1 up only to see his goal disallowed for handball as the away side began to threaten consistently. Montella was then sent off at half-time for protesting referee Marco Guida’s decision to halt play during a Milan counter-attack.

On 54 minutes, ex-Rossonero Francesco Acerbi took advantage of lax marking to give Sassuolo the lead. This lead was then doubled just two minutes later, as Lorenzo Pellegrini worked space with a one-two before beating Gustavo Gomez in a one-on-one and curling in his team’s third goal.

A meltdown of gargantuan proportions was on the cards. Milan’s players looked around disconsolately in search of hope, finding nothing but perplexed faces. Meanwhile, the fans, perhaps understandably, didn’t hold back in voicing their frustrations.

Not only would this have been a second home defeat of the season, following on from the deeply disappointing 1-0 loss to Udinese, but it would have continued Milan’s woes against Sassuolo, who beat them to sixth place and European competition last …

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com