Milan: AC Milan drew 3-3 at long-suffering Sassuolo on Sunday, leaving Inter Milan atop Serie A ahead of their final game against Cagliari.
Noah Okafor got a hard-fought point for Milan in the 84th minute on a hot spring day in Reggio Emilia, but second-placed Milan are still in danger of conceding the Scudetto to Inter in a much-anticipated derby despite coming back from two goals down.
Milan, who also scored thanks to a sublime individual goal from Rafael Leao and a point-blank save from Luka Jovic, are thirteen adrift of their home opponents with six games remaining in the season.
If Inter beat Cagliari at San Siro as expected, the champions would want to face Milan on Monday of the week to clinch their 20th league title.
It would be a bitter pill for Milan, who have never been in the running for the name this season, while Inter have been on the hunt since the beginning of the year.
“We created more chances than in any game this season. If we had scored five or six goals, nobody would have said anything,” Milan coach Stefano Pioli said.
“But we have to be bigger because our next games require a higher point of performance. “
Pioli made a series of adjustments after a first-leg defeat to Roma in the Europa League quarter-finals and two fewer goals with less than 10 minutes on the clock after early moves from Andrea Pinamonti and Armand Lauriente.
France’s Lauriente’s second goal seven minutes after the break, which restored Sassuolo’s two-goal lead after Leao scored in the 20th minute, saw second Sassuolo go inside two safety problems.
Milan’s second leg in Rome on Thursday takes on even more significance, as failing to pull off a win over a one-goal deficit in that draw would be a setback for the Milan derby and then a setback for third-placed Juventus the following weekend.
“I’m 100 per cent in my team, we have quality players, we’re a very smart team,” striker Okafor said.
“Now we have to concentrate . . . because we’re going to Rome to win. “
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