AC Milan failed to honour the 125th anniversary of the club’s foundation with Sunday’s drab goalless draw with Genoa which left the seven-time European champions way behind Serie A’s top teams. Fiorentina also lost ground in the title race by falling to a 1-0 defeat at Bologna and missing the chance to claim a club-record ninth straight league win. In front of over 70,000 fans and a host of icons who had come to the San Siro to watch their former team and celebrate Milan’s birthday, Paulo Fonseca’s side did nothing to live up to a glorious footballing history.
Alvaro Morata came closest to scoring for Milan when he smashed a close-range finish off the crossbar with 11 minutes remaining of another uninspiring display which was met with derision from supporters and left Milan eighth on just 23 points — eight from the Champions League positions and 14 behind league leaders Atalanta.
“The players played with desire, they played like a team, the only thing that was missing was the goal,” insisted Fonseca.
“We were aggressive, won the ball back high up the pitch, we had a lot of shots but just couldn’t score.”
But fans chanted “we’re not Americans” at US owners Redbird and unfurled a banner which read “we honour our heroes, symbols of a Milan which no longer exists”, hardly what the club would have been hoping for when planning the pre-match ceremony for the anniversary.
Milan wore a vintage kit for the occasion and before kick-off a host of icons paraded on the pitch carrying some of the vast number of trophies won since the club’s foundation on December 16, 1899 as Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club.
Those included Dutch trio Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard, who under Arrigo Sacchi and Fabio Capello played in one of the game’s greatest ever teams, and Andrea Pirlo who won Milan’s last Champions League in 2007.
The contrast between some of the names who came out before the match and those who actually played was stark, partly due to an injury crisis and also Fonseca’s dissatisfaction with his team.
Fonseca blasted his players after a lacklustre win over Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League and said he would select academy players if he couldn’t get the right attitude from his bigger names.
The Portuguese did just that by dropping France international Theo Hernandez for Spain under-19 international Alex Jimenez and giving 17-year-old Mattia Liberali his Serie A debut in place of injured Yunus Musah.
But the performance was not encouraging and unlikely to improve the already irritated Fonseca’s mood, nor that of the fans.
Fiorentina slip
Fiorentina are fourth, six points behind Atalanta with a game in hand following a first league defeat in three months, 1-0 at Bologna.
Sunday’s result moved Bologna up to seventh and three points behind Juventus, who sit in the Conference League spot, with a game in hand and gave coach Vincenzo Italiano a big win against his former club.
Italiano managed Fiorentina for three seasons, taking the Viola to two Europa Conference League finals and an Italian Cup final before joining Bologna in the summer.
“We’re growing as a team and our identity is starting to come through, especially defensively,” said Italiano.
“To have conceded so little to this Fiorentina team is brilliant.”
Como are level on 15 points with Verona and Parma after two stoppage-time goals gave Cesc Fabregas’ side a surprise, but deserved 2-0 win over Roma.
Roma have improved since Claudio Ranieri returned for his third spell as coach last month but Sunday’s performance was a step backwards and left the capital club just two points above the bottom three.
“They did everything they could to win the match and we didn’t do enough to create opportunities… we could be tired for the number of matches we’ve played but I don’t like relying on excuses,” said Ranieri.
On Monday, Roma’s local rivals Lazio host champions Inter Milan with both teams level on 31 points with Fiorentina and hoping to stay in sight of Atalanta.
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