Excellent Reijnders provides another calling card for winning Milan with an assist


Wednesday, September 27, 2023 at 8:24 PM• Noel Korteweg

AC Milan recorded its second consecutive league victory on Wednesday evening. Coach Stefano Pioli’s team was 1-3 too strong when visiting Cagliari. Tijjani Reijnders played a good match, contributing two goals and recording one assist. Noah Okafor, Fikayo Tomori and Ruben Loftus-Cheek were the goalscorers for Milan’s side; Zito Luvumbo opened the scoring on behalf of Cagliari.

Pioli made five forced changes to his starting team, as Milan is struggling with many injuries. Rade Krunic, Mike Maignan, Luka Jovic, Ismaël Bennacer and Mattia Caldara are all in the rag basket. Theo Hernández has just recovered from his injury and immediately returned to the team. Loftus-Cheek, Yacine Adli, Samuel Chukwueze and Okafor also kicked off. Rafael Leão and Olivier Giroud were on the bench.

Milan started the game well and created several opportunities in the opening phase. For example, Reijnders, Okafor and Loftus-Cheek targeted Cagliari keeper Boris Radunovic’s goal, but without success. The visitors were clearly the better side in the opening phase, but still had to concede a goal after half an hour of play. Luvumbo won his personal duel with Adli after a throw-in, allowing Nahitan Nández to pick up the ball and immediately hand it back to Luvumbo. The Cagliari striker didn’t think twice and shot hard past Marco Sportiello in the short corner: 1-0.

I Rossoneri As a result, they had to give chase and look for the equalizer. That would come ten minutes later thanks to Okafor who was served by Christian Pulisic, although Reijnders was at the basis of that goal with a wonderful assumption. The right foot immediately eliminated his direct opponent and was able to pass the ball to Pulisic. The American then reached the back line before passing hard and low. However, Radunovic processed that cross very poorly and Okafor was able to take full advantage of it: 1-1.

Just before half time, Reijnders was responsible for the visitors’ second goal. The ex-AZ player was part of a successful corner variation, then passed the ball hard and low after a body feint and saw Tomori give the decisive push: 1-2. The latter seemed more luck than wisdom, as Pantelis Hatzidiakos – who exchanged AZ for Cagliari this summer – first lightly touched the cross and then the ball ended up in the net via Tomori’s knee. Reijnders was substituted after an hour of play and saw from the bench how Loftus-Cheek determined the final score with a wonderful strike from distance: 1-3.

No. Team M W G V +/- Pnt
1 Internazionale 5 5 0 0 13 15
2 AC Milan 6 5 0 1 5 15
3 Juventus 6 4 1 1 6 13
4 Atalanta 6 4 0 2 6 12
5 Lecce 6 3 2 1 3 11
6 Fiorentina 5 3 1 1 2 10
7 Napoli 5 2 2 1 3 8
8 Frosinone 5 2 2 1 1 8
9 Torino 5 2 2 1 1 8
10 Hellas Verona 6 2 1 3 -2 7
11 Bologna 5 1 3 1 -1 6
12 Sassuolo 5 2 0 3 -2 6
13 AS Roma 5 1 2 2 5 5
14 Monza 5 1 2 2 -3 5
15 Lazio 5 1 1 3 -3 4
16 Genoa 5 1 1 3 -4 4
17 Udinese 5 0 3 2 -5 3
18 Salernitana 6 0 3 3 -6 3
19 Empoli 6 1 0 5 -12 3
20 Cagliari 6 0 2 4 -7 2