Frosinone and Milan threw a spectacle at Stadio Benito Stirpe, but Rossoneri walked away with their heads up. Luka Jovic’s talismanic touch inspired Stefano Pioli’s team to a sensational 3-2 comeback victory against bottom-half strugglers.
Milan broke the deadlock in the 17th minute through Olivier Giroud’s thumping header. But Eusebio Di Francesco’s side secured parity at halftime as Matias Soule slotted home a penalty midway through the first half.
Luca Mazzitelli turned things around at Benito Stirpe just after the hour mark, drilling a low effort past Mike Maignan after receiving an inviting through ball from Soule. It seemed like Milan could end up empty-handed in yet another dramatic away fixture.
However, returnee Matteo Gabbia put things back to square one in the 72nd minute, heading home from point-blank range. Less than two minutes since taking Christian Pulisic’s place, Jovic netted his fifth Serie A goal of the season to complete the turnaround.
Let’s look at our Milan player ratings.
Milan (4-2-3-1)
Mike Maignan – 6
The French goalkeeper’s downturn in form continues. While he was helpless against Soule from the spot, he should’ve done better for Frosinone’s second as Mazzitelli beat him from an acute angle.
Davide Calabria – 6.5
Dependable at the back as ever, the Milan captain worked his socks off. But other than several decent defensive tackles, he failed to impress, especially in attacking duties.
Simon Kjaer – 7
Another rock-solid performance from the veteran star! His no-nonsense defending helped Milan endure several critical situations. Equally reliable with the ball at his feet.
Matteo Gabbia – 7.5
Like his center-back colleague, the Italian defender refused to take risks in dangerous areas and dominated his opponents in the air. Couldn’t have picked a better moment to score his maiden Serie A goal!
Theo Hernandez – 6.5
Not as decisive as in some recent matches, yet the superstar left-back held up his end of the bargain in attack, though he occasionally stuttered against Soule.
Yacine Adli – 5.5
Pioli can’t be satisfied with the midfielder’s display. Hesitated to move the ball around way too often while misplacing numerous diagonal passes when he had better options.
Tijjani Reijnders – 6
The Dutchman slightly outperformed Adli this evening, but it wasn’t a huge ask. However, like the Frenchman, he lacked the guile to navigate tight spaces more efficiently.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek – 5.5
Way below last weekend’s performance against Bologna, as he failed to gain a foothold in the game and looked nervous in the first half, leading to a cheap yellow card.
Rafael Leao – 6.5
Unlucky, or, better said, reckless, the Portuguese gave away a penalty, overextending his arm on the edge of the box. On a more positive note, he looked more like his former self in the front third.
Christian Pulisic – 6
Not afraid to run on his man, the USMNT forward wasn’t short of trying, but this wasn’t his night by any stretch of the imagination.
Olivier Giroud – 7.5
He’s such a classy striker! In addition to opening the scoring with a towering header, he was calm and shrewd enough to spot Gabbia’s run to head the ball down for him instead of going for goal himself.
Substitutes
Ismael Bennacer – 6.5
Noah Okafor – 6
Luka Jovic – 7.5
Yunus Musah – N/A
Alessandro Florenzi – N/A
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I believe ur player ratings are just an expression of ur emotional attachment to individual players and not a true reflection of whatever is displayed on d pitch… Adli and Bennacer were d only midfielders dat came with dia boots to d field… TJ and RLC were just passengers… At first TJ, as usual was getting in d passing lanes making it difficult for Adli to make passes, they were both going for same balls but Adli grew into d game and became even better when Ben came on… Please try and be objective