Ten-man AC Milan held on for a share of the spoils in an entertaining 1-1 draw away to Torino on Saturday.
Torino hosted Milan with plenty to prove, having last beaten the Rossoneri in 2001 and their task looked compromised after just three minutes, when striker Jeremy Menez fired into the roof of the Granata’s net from the penalty spot after being fouled in the area by Kamil Glik as he ran toward goal.
To their credit, Torino responded positively and created several scoring chances in an entertaining opening period.
Photo: Reuters
The hosts went on to dominate throughout and, after Mattia De Sciglio saw red for a second bookable offense on the stroke of halftime, were repaid for their efforts when Glik headed the leveler from a corner nine minutes from time.
Milan, who are now winless in their past three outings, remained seventh and are 14 points behind leaders Juventus, but only four off the third and last UEFA Champions League qualifying spot currently occupied by SS Lazio.
However, the leveler meant Milan have now conceded 38 percent of their 21 goals from corner-kicks and coach Filippo Inzaghi told Sky Sports: “We have to manage things better when we’re on level terms, when we went down to 10 men we gave it everything we had.”
Photo: EPA
“I thought we had almost wrapped it up. I put on Alex because he is strong in the air and we went on to concede from a header. Again, from a corner,” the former Milan player added.
Torino’s seventh draw of the campaign kept them in 13th, a further seven points adrift and coach Giampiero Ventura hit out at the result: “It was all one-sided. We conceded once from the penalty spot, but created a string of chances that we should have put away.”
Milan were looking to make up for their shock 2-1 defeat to US Sassuolo on Tuesday last week, and with winger Alessio Cerci — a new loan signing from Atletico Madrid — on the bench as he faced his former club.
Yet after Menez put the visitors in front from the spot to claim his ninth goal of the campaign — only two behind Serie A leader Carlos Tevez of Juve — they became virtual bystanders as Torino created several scoring chances that kept Diego Lopez on his toes.
Alexander Farnerud’s screamer stung the Spaniard’s gloves and after the Swede set up Fabio Quagliarella, Lopez pulled off a remarkable save with his trailing leg.
Lopez had to look alert on the half hour when Giuseppe Vives’ chip in for Darmian saw the Italy midfielder’s header come off the post.
M’Baye Niang was given a rare start on the Milan front line and a nice turn and shot from the Frenchman went just wide on 35 minutes.
Any hopes Milan had of doubling their lead were compromised several minutes into first-half injury time when De Sciglio was caught out by Darmian and pulled him back to earn a second yellow card.
Sulley Muntari was booked seconds after the restart and was soon replaced by Andrea Poli.
Torino continued to dominate the game and only a deft touch from Pablo Armero stopped Josef Martinez scoring from short range.
Lopez did well to react with a one-handed save minutes later when Quagliarella hit a spinning ball on the half-volley from the edge of the area.
Inzaghi sought to tighten things up at the back when Menez was replaced by Brazilian defender Alex, but minutes later, Milan’s weakness at dead ball situations was sorely exposed when Glik sent a glancing header past the outstretched Lopez and inside the goalkeeper’s far post from a corner.
Remarkably, it was the defender’s fifth goal of the campaign and the eighth the Rossoneri have conceded from corners.
Elsewhere on the day, Sassuolo drew Udinese 1-1.
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