Milan picked up where they left off last weekend in Naples, eking out an all-important 1-0 home win over bottom-half Empoli to solidify their position atop the Serie A table. The winning goal came from an unlikely source as Pierre Kalulu slotted home a perfectly-placed long-range effort to give the Rossoneri a precious victory.
Milan regained their place at the Serie A summit with a hard-fought 1-0 triumph away to fellow title bidders Napoli last time out. However, Stefano Pioli’s men have recently developed a habit of dropping the points against sub-par opponents.
A brace of draws with relegation-battling duo Salernitana and Udinese back in February threw their hopes of lifting their first Scudetto since 2010/11 into doubt. Well aware they cannot take anything for granted, Milan gave their best at San Siro, even though their performance flattered to deceive.
With a trip to relegation-threatened Cagliari coming next, beating another bottom-half side was of the utmost importance for Milan. However, there is a feeling that the Rossoneri got away with this one as they again failed to kill the game off with a second goal.
Pioli blasted his players’ lack of composure in the early stage of the second half, conceding Milan ‘lost too many balls in the middle of the park.’
“In the second half, we missed too many passes. Empoli played well, but we didn’t suffer that much in defence. At the beginning of the second half, we lost a few too many balls, there was little movement. This didn’t allow us to keep our positions high,” the Milan boss told Sky Sport Italia, as relayed by MilanNews.
“We didn’t dominate, but we controlled the game well. Killing games would be better, but winning games like this is very important. Now all the teams have a goal and therefore great concentration is always needed.“
With only nine league matches left, Milan have their Scudetto hopes firmly in their hands, even though third-placed Inter have a game in hand.