Milan bagged three crucial points as they beat Salernitana 2-0 at the San Siro courtesy of goals from Franck Kessie and Alexis Saelemakers. The match was a lot more one-sided than the scoreline suggests and Fabrizio Castori could well be relieved not to concede any more than his team did.
Stefano Pioli made several changes to Milan’s XI from their victory in Genoa. With Simon Kjaer ruled out for the remainder of the season, skipper Alessio Romagnoli replaced him in the lineup while Alessandro Florenzi started at the expense of Pierre Kalulu.
In midfield, Tiemoue Bakayoko replaced Sandro Tonali while Rafael Leao and Alexis Saelemakers started instead of Rade Krunic and Junior Messias respectively. Pietro Pellegri made his first league start since 2017, leaving Zlatan Ibrahimovic on the bench.
The Rossoneri started asserting their authority over Salernitana with Kessie opening the scoring for them after only five minutes thanks to a pass from Leao. Brahim Diaz had a very good chance of doubling Milan’s lead when Bakayoko’s measured pass found him. However, the Spaniard’s shot was wide.
Pioli was forced to make an early change as Pellegri suffered an injury and had to be taken off. He was replaced by Krunic.
Milan doubled their lead thanks to a wonderful curling shot from Saelemakers’ left foot. The Belgian celebrated in a very classy way by paying tribute to Kjaer.
Pioli’s side continued to put pressure and they had quite a number of chances to go 3-0 up. One notable opportunity came towards Krunic but his shot was saved by Salernitana goalkeeper Vid Belec. Kessie came close to scoring a second but he struck just wide.
Milan made one change during the interval as Messias came on for Leao. The Rossoneri continued to dominate the game and were looking to get that third goal. Messias had a good chance to curl in from the right but Belec made a brilliant save to deny him. Diaz had a glorious chance to find the net but his shot was just wide.
Salernitana were on the backfoot for the entirety of the game and the best chance they had was from substitute Pawel Jaroszynski.
In the end, Milan bagged three important points and are at the top of the Serie A table for the time being. Next up for the Rossoneri is their all-important Champions League clash against Liverpool.