AC Milan did not make a mistake in the title fight on Saturday night. The Serie A leader won 0-1 against number seventeen Cagliari, extending the runner-up lead to three points. Ismaël Bennacer beautifully scored the only goal of the game. It was the third consecutive league game that Milan won 0-1 or 1-0. In stoppage time, Milan got away well, as Cagliari hit the crossbar from a header.
At halftime it was 0-0, although Milan did have opportunities to open the score. After seven minutes, Olivier Giroud went wide of Cagliari’s goal; Franck Kessié shot from a distance against the post five minutes later. The first half was also a physical spectacle, with referee Marco Di Bello condoning a lot. Cagliari showed good football every now and then in the build-up, but couldn’t get past the central duo of Fikayo Tomori and Pierre Kalulu.
A delicious volley??
Ismael Bennacer shoots AC Milan to a liberating 1-0 lead ??#ZiggoSport #SeriesA #CagliariMilan pic.twitter.com/osPcNRVa6B— Ziggo Sport Football (@ZS_Voetbal) March 19, 2022
At the start of the second half, Theo Hernández dared a shot from over thirty meters, but Alessio Cragno had a great save. Cagliari’s goalkeeper, however, was transfixed when Bennacer suddenly took the ball out of the air, just outside the penalty area: the midfielder got the ball under Giroud’s feet and shot hard into the left corner.
Milan looked stronger in the first fifteen minutes of the second half, kept the ball in the team more easily than before halftime and also created opportunities more easily. After the 1-0, Cagliari was close to equalizing when a shot from João Pedro was deflected by Tomori. On the other side, good opportunities arose for Davide Calabria and Ante Rebic, but the most menacing header was Cagliari’s header in stoppage time. Leonardo Pavoletti nodded through the ground against the crossbar, causing Milan to escape unscathed.