AC Milan did not make a mistake in the title fight in Italy on Saturday night. The Serie A leader won 1-0 against Empoli and expanded the lead over number two Internazionale to five points, although the city rival has two games credit. The winning goal was scored by Pierre Kalulu, who scored for the first time in 27 official games this season. Milan didn’t play a great game, but goalkeeper Mike Maignan paid attention when needed. Title competitors Inter and Napoli come into action on Sunday; Juventus already won 1-3 on Saturday at Sampdoria.
Milan, with Alessandro Florenzi taking the place of the suspended Theo Hernández, had the initiative in the opening phase and became dangerous for the first time after seven minutes. Interplay between Rafael Leão, Franck Kessié and Florenzi resulted in a shooting opportunity for the latter, but goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario tapped the ball out of the corner. Halfway through the first half, Milan did manage to open the score. A free kick by Olivier Giroud ended up in the wall, giving defender Kalulu from about 23 meters the space for a low shot into the bottom left corner: 1-0.
Florenzi then had another opportunity to score, but shot over after preparatory work by Leão. On the other side, Andrea Pinamonti fired a warning shot from the box from the edge of the penalty area. Overall, Milan was the dominant party. The home side had control and also had two more opportunities via Giroud to increase the margin, but he nodded over and saw another shot being turned by Vicario.
At the start of the second half, goalkeeper Maignan of Milan made a great save after a headbutt by Sebastiano Luperto, but otherwise Milan remained quite easily upright. A weak attempt by Szymon Zurkowski caused no problems for the goalkeeper. On behalf of Milan, Junior Messias made two attempts that were also not decisive enough. Ibrahimovic made his entrance as a substitute in minute 83, after he returned from injury last week against Napoli (0-1 win) and had already participated for two minutes. He didn’t get any chances to score.
Zlatan = Back! † Can Ibrahimovic still make the difference and secure the win? †#ZiggoSport #SeriesA #MilanEmpoli pic.twitter.com/SX6opPOD9r
— Ziggo Sport Football (@ZS_Voetbal) March 12, 2022
| No. | Team | m | W | G | V | † | Pnt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AC Milan | 29 | 19 | 6 | 4 | 26 | 63 |
| 2 | Internazionale | 27 | 17 | 7 | 3 | 38 | 58 |
| 3 | Napoli | 28 | 17 | 6 | 5 | 29 | 57 |
| 4 | Juventus | 29 | 16 | 8 | 5 | 19 | 56 |
| 5 | Atalanta | 27 | 13 | 8 | 6 | 19 | 47 |
| 6 | AS Roma | 28 | 14 | 5 | 9 | 12 | 47 |
| 7 | Lazio | 28 | 13 | 7 | 8 | 15 | 46 |
| 8 | Fiorentina | 27 | 13 | 4 | 10 | 9 | 43 |
| 9 | Hellas Verona | 28 | 11 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 41 |
| 10 | Sassuolo | 29 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 3 | 40 |
| 11 | Torino | 27 | 9 | 7 | 11 | 5 | 34 |
| 12 | Bologna | 27 | 9 | 6 | 12 | -10 | 33 |
| 13 | empoli | 29 | 8 | 8 | 13 | -14 | 32 |
| 14 | Udinese | 26 | 6 | 11 | 9 | -9 | 29 |
| 15 | special | 29 | 8 | 5 | 16 | -20 | 29 |
| 16 | sampdoria | 29 | 7 | 5 | 17 | -14 | 26 |
| 17 | Cagliari | 29 | 5 | 10 | 14 | -25 | 25 |
| 18 | Venice | 27 | 5 | 7 | 15 | -26 | 22 |
| 19 | Genoa | 28 | 1 | 15 | 12 | -25 | 18 |
| 20 | Salernitana | 27 | 3 | 7 | 17 | -41 | 16 |