AC Milan changed their shape and tactics to try and boost their attack to keep pace with the leaders in Serie A, but an early goalkeeping mistake and a red card cost them two points as they drew away to Cesena, and Milan have dropped points in a third straight match.
Cesena vs. AC Milan: Final score 1-1, 10-man Milan can’t break Cesena down
AC Milan struggled to find a breakthrough against an energetic Cesena side, and a second half red card sunk the rossoneri’s chances at keeping up with the pack gunning for third place in Serie A.
Mario Carlini / Iguana Press
Milan were all over the hosts early, with Fernando Torres and Keisuke Honda leading the rossoneri in piling on pressure on Cesena's back line. Milan struggled to get good shots off despite the pressure, though, and Nicola Leali was up to the challenge on what efforts he did face.
Goalkeeping was the big story in the early run of the match. Leali made a couple impressive saves against Milan’s attack, then at the other end Christian Abbitati spilled a Cesena cross off a counter attack and Davide Succi was there to poke home the loose ball, putting Cesena up after just ten minutes, and completely against the run of play.
Leali was quickly called in to action again, with Milan pushing hard to equalize. Jeremy Menez was able to put the ball in the net a few minutes after Cesena’s goal, but he was rightfully flagged offside. In the 18th minute, Honda fired a bullet of a free kick that Leali made a brilliant reaction save on, but he could only push the ball past the frame of goal for a corner instead of catching it. Adil Rami was able to connect to the resulting corner, and Leali was slow off the mark for once and was far too late to his post to keep the equalizer out.
Despite the goal, there were some pretty marked warning signs for Milan in the first half that carried over in to the second, and frankly got worse along the way. Filippo Inzaghi had changed his side's shape today, ditching his traditional 4-3-3 for a 4-2-3-1 in order to try to get more service for Torres up top. Milan struggled mightily with the new setup as the match settled in, proving unable to maintain much width or fluidity with the formation, allowing Cesena to keep their defense and midfield tight and narrow to further constrict their opponents' chances.
With everyone in the attacking midfield band trying to play right behind the striker for Milan, the onus of attacking width fell on their fullbacks, and both Ignazio Abate and Mattia De Sciglio struggled with the responsibility of doing all the wide work at both ends of the pitch. That combined with sloppy midfield possession for Milan opened them up to counter attack after counter attack, which served the dual purpose for Cesena of creating chances and keeping Milan's attack blunted.
Then Crisitan Zapata hauled down Gregoire Defrel at the top of Milan’s box, and the Colombian defender was shown a red card for denying a goalscoring chance. That served to further tilt the momentum in to Cesena’s favor, and they pushed hard for the rest of the match, trying to use their man advantage to steal a win off Milan. That winner proved elusive, but Cesena will be more than happy to take the draw in this match.
Cesena: Leali; Capelli (Perico 72'), Volta, Lucchini, Renzetti; Ze Eduardo (De Feudis 46'), Cascione, Coppola; Brienza, Marilungo; Succi (Defrel 61')
Goal: Succi 10’
AC Milan: Abbiati; Abate, Rami, Zapata (red card 73'), De Sciglio; De Jong, Poli (Essien 71'); Honda (Alex 75'), Menez, Bonaventura; Torres (Pazzini 71')
Goal: Rami 19’
See More:
