Genoa vs Milan 0-3: Messias Brace Punishes Shevchenko

Milan’s soul searching moment seems to be over as the Rossoneri interrupted a two-game losing streak and raided the Marassi Stadium with a sounding 0-3 success over Genoa. A deadly free kick from Zlatan Ibrahimovic and a brace from Junior Messias added to Andriy Shevchenko’s woes as the former Rossoneri legends is still winless and goalless since he sat on the bench of the Grifone.

What’s more, Sassuolo made an unexpected Christmas gift to Milan as they bounced back from a two-goal deficit to force Napoli to a draw – thus enabling Stefano Pioli’s boys to reduce the gap from the Partenopei to one point only. Yes, this is going to be an exciting Serie A.

Shevchenko did what he could, considering that his roster is still plagued with multiple injuries – Domenico Criscito, Nikola Maksimovic, Mattia Destro to name a few – and thus confirmed 21-year-old Flavio Bianchi on the front line supported by Caleb Ekuban. Milan were without Olivier Giroud and Ismael Bennacer, on top of Davide Calabria and Ante Rebic who have been injured since a few weeks.

The start was not the best for the Rossoneri, who also lost Simon Kjaer after just 30 seconds due to what looked like a knee sprain. It remains to be seen for how long the Danish stalwart will be out, but surely Milan suffered another hard blow.

Which didn’t seem to affect them that much, however, as the Diavolo quickly took control of the operations and found the back of the net on 10 minutes thanks to another Ibra magic. The Sweden international made the best out of a free-kick with a clinical conversion, not powerful but well-addressed to the bottom right corner of the goal. 

Milan’s pressure bore fruit again just before the break as Messias took full advantage of his first chance as a starter with a header that flew past the hapless Salvatore Sirigu.

Genoa tried to react after the restart but found a monumental Mike Maignan on their way. The French goalkeeper reminded his new fans how important he already is in present-day’s Milan with a spectacular save on Hernani and then with another superb piece of goalkeeping to deflect above the crossbar a long-range lob from Manolo Portanova.

Before that, the Rossoneri had made it three already, once again with Junior Messias. The Brazilian’s second of the night came from a clinical left-foot shot that finalized a Brahim Diaz service.

It ended with Milan legend Shevchenko hugging and kissing many of his former Rossoneri teammates – from technical director Paolo Maldini to goalkeeper coach Dida, even tough Milan were not kind to him on the pitch tonight – Genoa will need to look for the points they need to avoid relegation somewhere else. 

What’s Next for Genoa and Milan

Andriy Shevchenko has been at the helm of the Rossoblu since three games but has only collected one point and no goals so far. Genoa need to reverse this trend fast but their next game, an away trip to Turin to face Juventus, does not exactly look like the easiest opportunity.

Milan, on the other hand, have a comfortable test on paper as they receive Salernitana on Saturday to build on tonight’s victory.

 

MATCH SCORECARD

December 1, 2021 – Serie A 2021-2022 Round 15
GENOA – MILAN 0-3

SCORERS: 10′ Ibrahimovic, 45+1′ Messias, 61′ Messias