AC Milan maintain Serie A lead with a win at Cagliari

stefano pioli

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AC Milan has maintained their lead on the Serie A table with a 3-1 win away at Napoli.

Diavolo had to fight back from a goal down in the away fixture to take all three points.

Finally, summer signing Noah Okafor and Ruben Loftus-Cheek have opened their Serie A goals account, plus Fikayo Tomori’s tap-in.

After some disappointing performances, Stefano Pioli rejigged the squad by ditching the 3-4-3 experiment, which gave an opportunity for Yacine Adli, who replaced injured Rade Krunic.

Meanwhile, the Sardinians are suffering a contrasting fortune to Milansl’s as they were still looking for their first victory of the season.

The visitors got the first chance when Tijjani Reijnders flashed a shot across the face of the goal to skim the far post in the opening couple of minutes.

Zito Luvumbo’s appeal for a penalty was rebuffed when Fikayo Tomori snatched the ball off his foot as Milan continued pressing for the opener.

Okafor, who was looking for his first league goal, nodded a Reijnders pull-back over from close range after a smart Adli cross-field pass, and they went on to scuffed the finish straight at Boris Radunovic from 12 yards.

Cagliari 2ould later take the lead against the 4un of play. Luvumbo robbed Adli in possession to combine with Nahitan Nandez and unleashed a scorching left-foot strike from the tightest of angles into the roof of the net.

Okafor finally opened his league account when he brought Milan level via a gift from Radunovic, who fumbled the Christian Pulisic pull-back from the by-line for him to tap in from six yards.

Radunovic was again called into action when he made a fingertip save to push the Theo Hernandez strike over the bar.
Reijnders from a corner flashed a powerful assist across the face of the goal, and Tomori was there to bundle it in from point-blank range.

After they had turned the game around, Ruben Loftus-Cheek almost got a third on the stroke of halftime. The English midfielder poked Samuel Chukwueze’s through ball to draw a save with Radunovic’s outstretched foot.
Adli stopped the host from levelling the encounter when he flung himself in the way of a Luvumbo finish from point-blank range.
As Cagliari were pouring forward in search of an equaliser, Milan punished them by extending their advantage.

Pulisic, from the left of the field, pulled back to outside the area and released a pass to Loftus-Cheek, who had time and space to control and unleash a right-foot rocket into the near bottom corner.

Milan continued to search for another when Yunus Musah volleyed a hard and low shot straight at Radunovic.

Sportiello helped Milan to finish with a two-goal o3ad when he made a tough reaction save as Luvumbo robbed Tomori to set up Gaetano Oristanio’s spectacular control, turn, and volley.

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