Fiorentina 2-1 Milan Points Thrown Away

Abate made a welcome return to the starting line up, elsewhere on the pitch van Ginkel got another opportunity in a nominal 4-3-3. The hosts’ coach Vincenzo Montella could afford to rest the well performing Chelsea loanee Mohamed Salah. Honda had Milan’s first good chance, his hard shot was stopped by Neto in the Fiorentina goal. Perhaps surprisingly Milan had the better of the ball early on including several corners. Fiorentina weren’t doing too well. Several players, including Honda, were guilty of wastefulness however. In the 30th minute van Ginkel got a deserved yellow for a poor tackle and Fiorentina’s best first chance came from the resulting free kick. Lopez did well to collect the ball. Fiorentina kept improving.
Fiorentina made two changes to start the second taking off Alberto Aquilani and Micah Richards for Milan Badelj and Joaquin. The better chances started to come for the hosts. Milan scored first however, a Bonaventura shot was almost unintentionally directed in by Destro. Menez showcased his wastefulness again in the 63rd minute and wasted a counter and Destro cross. On the other side players like Joaquin were just as wasteful. Cerci came on for Honda but the team couldn’t hang on. Gonzalo Rodriguez jumped above Abate to head for the equalizer. Worse was yet to come as a poorly marked Joaquin added another soon after. The last ditch desperation efforts were introducing Pazzini for Essien and curiously Bonera for Abate. In the end it was yet more points thrown away.
More about the game in its match thread.