STADIO ENNIO TARDINI (Parma) – A dramatic late strike from Theo Hernandez ensured that AC Milan’s winless run ended at three games as they stole a 1-0 win away to Parma on Sunday afternoon.
The Rossoneri hadn’t strung together four games without victory this season and just as they looked set to hit a new low for the campaign, Theo was on hand to secure the points.
Hitory suggested they were always likely to score though, having scored in each of their previous 12 meetings with Parma, and so it proved.
The protesting Curva Nord’s lack of life transferred onto the pitch early on and Parma weren’t involved for much of the opening exchanges.
Hakan Calhanoglu fired wide from a Krzysztof Piatek centre before Alessio Romagnoli headed over from close range, leaving the Crociati lucky to be still on terms.
Suso then needlessly shot off target from range despite having better options available and Franck Kessie forced a save out of Luigi Sepe.
Parma’s first real venture forward came after Juraj Kucka did well to open up space with a cross-field pass to Dejan Kulusevski. In turn he slipped Hernani through and the Brazilian poked past the out-coming Gianluigi Donnarumma but Romagnoli was there to sweep up.
Calhaoglu then cause Sepe to make another save before Theo Hernandez picked out Giacomo Bonaventura with a low cross but the midfielder was sliding and at full stretch so could only send his shot wide.
The half finished with a rare Parma chance. Gervinho broke and put Kucka through on the right but with the angle always closing on the Slovakian he could only put his powerful strike wide of the near post.
Suso came close on the hour mark with the first attempt of the second half. He found some space on the edge of the area after squirming free but his low shot dragged inches wide of Sepe’s bottom left corner.
Parma came out a different team after the break and they looked to be competitive. Still not really carving out much, they did match Milan more all over the pitch.
Kulusevski got beyond the Rossoneri backline when Gervinho put him through but he was closed down well.
Rafael Leao was introduced in an attempt to inject some life into Milan, but they continued to be wasteful in possession.
Suso summed up his season in a couple of seconds. He showed some tidy footwork to create some space again on the edge of the box but his shot was wild, high and closer to the corner flag than it was to the goal.
Calhanoglu added to their frustration moments later when he had a great chance to open the scoring in the final ten minutes but the Turk wanted too much time and his effort was stopped by Sepe.
Milan turned the pressure up as the clock ticked towards 90 minutes and that pressure eventually told. A loose ball ricocheted off Bruno Alves and fell kindly for Theo, who reacted to prod home a winner in front of the travelling Rossoneri support.
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com