After a disappointing players strike that eventually postponed the Serie A starts for around two weeks, the league finally kicked off on Friday with the defending champion Ac Milan hosting Lazio at San Siro in a pretty sparkling match which ended 2-2.
The visitor shocked the home crowd in the first 25 minutes as they managed to take two goals lead, before the Rossoneri equalized just before the first period ended, making the season opener a really entertaining fixture, although there’s a visible effect of the strike that can be seen from the players’ poor fitness.
Lazio who successfully held Milan in the last three meetings, looked a bit confident from the start as they played a pretty attacking line up fielding the likes of Hernanes, Stefano Mauri along with the clubs two summer signings, Miroslav Klose and Djibril Cisse from the kick off. However, it was the Rossoneri’s poor fitness that pretty much helped the visitor’s cause in the first 25 minutes as despite a miss chance from Milan’s new purchase, Alberto Aquianil earlier on, it was the Biancocelesti that managed to take the lead to Klose, who turned Alessandro Nesta rather easily before scoring the season’s opening goal.
Ten minutes after the first goal, Lazio simply stunned the home crowd after once again they took the lead, this time it was Cisse who got in front of Nesta before sending a fine header that left Abbiati stranded in Milan’s goal. Losing two goals down in front of their fans at San Siro is simply unacceptable result for the home team as they finally started to push up more and got their reward seven minutes after the capital club’s second. It was Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who lifted his teammates spirit after tapping in Cassano’s pass into an empty net right on the 29th .
Less than five minutes after Ibra’s goal, Milan’ fans started to sing again as Cassano scored the equalizing goal after the striker headed in Aquilani’s lovely corner, a pretty rare goal indeed for the Italian international since he is not that well known for scoring with his head. The equalizing goal simply returned Milan’s confidence as they started to control the match after it, creating several chances especially in the second period which unfortunately weren’t converted by the home team’s players.
The result in the end might be considered a pretty fair one, although in the end Milan did created more goal scoring chances in the entire game, but their poor defensive play in the first 25 minutes simply punished the home team. Another obvious thing is that the Rossoneri are definitely looking less fitter than the visitor simply because the capital side did played in competitive matches earlier than Massimiliano Allegri’s side, as Lazio were featured in the Europa League round few weeks ago. Milan in the other hand, were playing their first competitive match and the strike pretty much ruin their preparation schedule as many players were definitely looking really unfit on that game.
Match Report:
Ac Milan v Lazio 2-2
Goals: Ibrahimovic 29 (Milan), Cassano 33 (Milan); Klose 12 (Lazio), Cisse 22 (Lazio)
Milan: Abbiati; Abate, Nesta, Thiago Silva, Antonini; Gattuso (Van Bommel 20), Ambrosini, Aquilani (Nocerino 68); Boateng (Pato 75); Ibrahimovic, Cassano
Lazio: Bizzarri; Konko, Biava, Dias, Zauri; Ledesma, Brocchi; Cissè, Hernanes (Matuzalem 85), Mauri (Lulic 79); Klose (Gonzalez 68)
