Victory at Verona takes Milan to second

AC Milan has returned to the second spot in the Italian Serie A standings after a solitary goal victory at Hellas Verona on Sunday afternoon.

The first-half goal from Adrien Rabiot proved just enough for Milan to scrape victory away from rock bottom Verona.

Although he assisted the goal, Rafael Leao was again disappointing and had to be removed.

Max Allegri jettisoned a 4-3-3 tactical experiment after back-to-back defeats to Napoli and Udinese. The gafar then returned to 3-5-2 with under-fire Rafael Leao upfront and Matteo Gabbia back two months after surgery on a sports hernia.

Lorenzo Montipò was quick off his line to smother the ball after Rafael Leao tried to run onto a Christian Pulisic flick over the top in the opening 90 seconds.

Verona suffered an injury blow as Leao and Victor Nelsson accidentally fell on Daniel Oyegoke, leaving the defender with a sprained ankle, forcing an early change.

Rabiot was consistent in his attacking for Milan in the first half as his angled drive tested Montipò after a Pulisic back-heel flick and Youssouf Fofana’s through ball.

Rabiot eventually scored the opener as he won back possession in midfield and immediately ran forward to complete the give-and-go with Leao, sweeping first-time past the on-rushing Montipò.

Verona almost levelled matters with the last kick of the half, but Mike Maignan was at Milan’s rescue. Winger Rafik Belghali sprung the offside trap to go clear on goal but was denied by a great one-handed Maignan save.

The protocol has to be activated at the start of the second half due to some racist abuse as Maignan made his way to the goal under the Hellas ultras end.

After Belghali threatened again with a ferocious strike that went wide from distance, Fofana couldn’t continue the game as the Frenchman was seen clutching the back of his thigh and was substituted along with Rafael Leao, who walked over and muttered something to Allegri while covering his mouth.

Belghali has another chance as his shot got deflected wide.

Maignan was again called into action as he crammed across to get his palm to an Ioan Vermesan daisy-cutter.

Gabbia thought he had doubled their lead with a header at the back post on Alexis Saelemaekers’ cross, but it was chalked off as Santiago Gimenez was offside earlier in the move.

Gabbia made a desperate block to stop two Verona players bundling the low cross over the line from six yards, throwing himself in their path.

Verona continued their push for an equaliser as Modric had to charge down an Orban strike at the near post.

Milan couldn’t make use of the opportunity to double their lead when Nicolas Valentini made a goal-line clearance to deny the Saelemaekers’ rocket from the edge of the area.