Tijjani Reijnders gave AC Milan something to cheer about over Christmas with the only goal in their Italian Seria A 1-0 win yesterday at lowly Verona which was marked by more fan protests.
Netherlands midfielder Reijnders lashed in his eighth goal of the season from Milan’s first real chance of the game in the 56th minute, crashing home first-time from Youssouf Fofana’s neat pass.
“It was very important… luckily we won because it was a difficult match, but we got the three points and now we can celebrate Christmas,” Reijnders said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Reijnders’ strike moved Milan up one place to seventh on 26 points, five from the UEFA Champions League positions and 11 behind leaders Atalanta who host Empoli today.
That position is not where supporters expected to be this season under Paulo Fonseca and the away end loudly voiced its dissent throughout the first half.
Chants demanding Gerry Cardinale, founder of Milan’s owners RedBird Capital Partners, to “sell and go” rang around the Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi, as did others urging the players to “show some balls.”
Milan chairman Paolo Scaroni on Friday said that Redbird are a “committed owner for the long-term” following the announcement of a refinancing of the vendor loan taken out with previous owners Elliott Management when acquiring the club in 2022.
Reijnders has been one of the few consistent bright spots of an otherwise up-and-down season for Milan, whose celebrations for the club’s 125th anniversary were ruined by angry fans barracking players and the ownership.
Milan came into Friday’s game missing a host of key players, including Christian Pulisic and Alvaro Morata, and lost Rafael Leao to a left hamstring knock in the first half.
Leao was replaced by Theo Hernandez who was once again dropped to the bench despite Fonseca, whose job is reported to be under threat, insisting that the France full-back is not being punished for having a poor attitude.
“I just spoke to Rafa and I don’t think it’s anything serious,” Fonseca told DAZN. “We’ll know more tomorrow but it [taking him off] was more a preventative measure because he didn’t want to take any risks.”
A narrow defeat for Verona leaves Paolo Zanetti’s team one point and place above the relegation zone.
TO THE TOP: After securing the international title on Saturday, Team Taiwan were to face Las Vegas to potentially win their 18th Little League World Series championship A team from Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School won the Little League Baseball World Series’ international title on Saturday by defeating Aruba 1-0 in the annual baseball tournament held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Taiwan team, competing under the name Chinese Taipei, were after press time last night to face a team from Las Vegas, Nevada, which beat a team from Fairfield, Connecticut, in the US championship 8-2. Taiwan are seeking to win their first Little League Baseball World Series title since 1996. “Really haven’t taken a moment to data dump right now on Taiwan,” Nevada manager T.J. Fescher said. “They’re a
Marc Marquez continued his winning streak as he cruised to victory in the Hungarian GP sprint by two seconds on Saturday night to pad his championship lead. It was a seventh straight Sprint victory for the Spaniard, who has also won the last six longer Sunday grand prix races on his factory Ducati. Fabio Di Giannantonio, an Italian with the VR46 Ducati satellite team was a distant second at Balaton Park, followed by his team-mate and compatriot Franco Morbidelli third. Marquez, a six-time world champion, started the race from pole position. “I felt someone really close on the first corner, from there I
Former European champions Celtic exited the UEFA Champions League in the qualifiers after a 3-2 penalty shoot-out defeat at Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty on Tuesday, following two goalless legs in the playoff tie. Kairat are to compete in the competition proper for the first time, while Norway’s Bodo/Glimt and Cyprus’s Pafos also secured debut appearances after coming through the playoffs. Celtic’s night ended in disappointment as they missed three penalties in the shoot-out, Daizen Maeda failing with the decisive spot-kick. The slugfest of a match went into extra-time with neither side finding the net and few overall chances, echoing the first
Russian Diana Shnaider continued her impressive winning streak in tour-level finals at the Monterrey Open on Saturday, beating compatriot Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the WTA 500 event’s final. Shnaider had little trouble in the opening set but struggled in a topsy-turvy second, as Alexandrova clinched the set’s fifth and decisive break at 5-4 to force a decider. Third-seed Shnaider carved out an advantage early on in the third set when she broke Alexandrova in the first game and held serve to go 2-0 up, an advantage she would not relinquish. World No. 12 Shnaider is now unbeaten in her last five
RSS