AC Milan vs. Sassuolo: Winners and Losers from Serie A Game
AC Milan suffered a terrible start to 2015 as they lost 2-1 at home to Sassuolo in Serie A on Tuesday in the first fixtures back in the Italian top flight after the winter break.
A good start and an early lead through Andrea Poli gave the home team a positive outlook, but goals from Nicola Sansone and Simone Zaza turned the match around as Sassuolo dominated much of the middle hour of the game, and in truth, deserved the three points.
Here are all our major winners and losers from the game.
Winner: Nicola Sansone
1 of 5
Nicola Sansone isn't a regular scorer, but he put in a great performance for Sassuolo to not only score an important goal but also give the Milan defence plenty to worry about with his running on and off the ball.
Plenty of impressive moments of acceleration and close control saw him escape the attentions of Adil Rami and Alex, drifting behind the defence or sprinting around them, while his goal was an exercise in timing, both in his run and the strike itself.
Sansone worked tremendously hard off the ball to close down Milan's defenders and stop them playing out before being subbed late on after a great shift.
Loser: Cristian Zapata
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Colombian defender Cristian Zapata was all over the show, especially in the first half.
From a comfortable 20 opening minutes where he had nothing to do, Zapata was soon split open a number of times as soon as Sansone and Berardi started to make runs and passes infield.
His own distribution was panicky and misguided, often putting team-mates into trouble and inviting more pressure to defend against. Rarely was he in place to make a telling challenge or clearance.
Winner: Domenico Berardi
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The right-sided attacker for Sassuolo took a little while to get into the game, but by the time he sorted out his deliveries into the box from wide areas, he became the difference between defeat and victory at the San Siro.
His runs behind the defence—and willingness to also sit in pockets of space to collect the ball—made him difficult to track and, once a few early balls had been overhit, he started making his time on the ball count in a big way.
A terrific clipped ball into the box found Sansone for the first goal, while his second-half corner sought out Simone Zaza's explosive finish to win the game.
Loser: The Anonymous Milan Midfield
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Milan did start well. For 20 minutes, they were comfortable in possession, kept Sassuolo pegged back in their defensive third and Andrea Poli's willingness to run into the box brought one goal and almost another.
After that, though, they barely had a look-in until Sassuolo sat right back in the final 10 minutes, intent on defending and keeping Milan at bay. During the middle hour of the match, Milan's midfield trio of Michael Essien, Poli and Riccardo Montolivo had no time on the ball, couldn't close down their opponents quickly enough and made too few challenges to get Milan playing positively and further upfield again.
Essien in particular was atrocious; after taking a knock 50 seconds in and needing treatment, he only made two more notable contributions—he lost the ball easily in his own half and almost cost a goalscoring chance, then was subbed off for Alessio Cerci's debut.
Loser: Pippo Inzaghi
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Pippo Inzaghi goes down as our final loser, but it's more because of his situation than something he's done himself in this instance.
The opening stages of the game indicated that Inzaghi is getting things right on the training ground, though certain players are curiously continually selected despite not delivering on the pitch. The midfield, though, remains bereft of real quality and the defence is loose, lacking composure and leadership. Is that a training ground issue or one due to who Inzaghi is given to work with?
Anyway, no doubt the signing of Alessio Cerci will help those aspects of Milan's game...
