Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musah both got in on the action for AC Milan, who logged another Serie A victory, while Gianluca Busio starred for Venezia, as a wild win kept them in the picture for automatic promotion.
AC Milan 3 – 1 Roma
Christian Pulisic started for AC Milan while Yunus Musah was a second-half substitute, as the team made easy work of Roma to keep barely within sight of the league’s top two teams.
While Roma’s head coach Jose Mourinho was kept off of the sideline while serving a red card suspension, interim coach Salvatore Foti did well to keep his team in the game, however, Stefano Pioli’s side was simply more precise, ruthless, and took full advantage of a generally poor performance by Roma keeper Mile Svilar.
While not scoring or directly assisting on any of Milan’s three goals, Pulisic was again strong in his 79-minute outing. He registered four shots, set up one direct chance, successfully won five of his six attempted dribbles and seven out of 12 duels, and was involved in the buildup to Milan’s first score.
Just before the ten-minute mark, Pulisic recovered a blocked Leao shot from the left, initiating a probing kick-around by several Milan players just outside of Roma’s area. Several passes later, Pulisic played a short lay-off to Tijjani Reijnders just outside the area, who quickly slid it over to Yacine Adli. The French midfielder pressed forward and hit a low shot from 18 yards out, which evaded Svilar’s grasp on its way into the lower right corner for the 1-0 lead.
Roma were dealt an unfortunate blow right after the half when Gianluca Mancini had to be replaced by Lorenzo Pellegrini due to an apparent knock, then Olivier Giroud added more pain for the visitors ten minutes later, heading in Simon Kjær’s own headed cross from the right post for the 2-0 lead.
Leandro Paredes did pull one back for the visitors with just over 20 minutes remaining, nailing his spot-kick after Davide Calabria tripped Lorenzo Pellegrini just inside the area.
Musah entered with 11 minutes remaining as a part of a double-switch that also saw Pulisic’s evening come to an end.
While Roma pressed for an equalizer, Theo Hernández put the game to rest in the 84th minute, running onto Giroud’s back-heel flick through his marking defender’s legs, and absolutely blasting his shot from the upper left corner of the area, under the crossbar and over the line for the final 3-1 score.
Musah nearly got onto the scoreboard in the final moments in spectacular fashion, weaving his way from the right sideline across the field and into the area, evading several defenders in the process, however, his low shot was off the upright.
With crosstown rivals and Serie A leaders Inter Milan also winning big over the weekend, the Rossoneri remain nine points off the pace, although they could make up ground on second-place Juventus, who will host Sassuolo on Tuesday night.
Milan heads several hours east on Saturday for their next league match against 16th-place Udinese.
Catanzaro 5 – 3 Lecco
Andrija Novakovich’s fifth goal of the season temporarily put Lecco on even terms with their hosts Catanzaro on Friday night, however, a late thrust by the Calabrian promotion hunters saw the American and his teammates return home empty-handed.
The teams traded blows for much of the first hour, starting with Luca Verna’s low strike from the right following a corner to give Catanzaro the 19th-minute lead, only for Lorenzo Di Stefano to equalize for Lecco seven minutes later with a well-placed 18-yarder to the lower right corner.
Mats Lemmens put Lecco ahead at the half hour with a header just inside the right upright, although the hosts were eventually able to pull even four minutes after the break thanks to a spinning shot by Dimitrios Sounas, and then take the lead four minutes later with Pietro Iemmello’s short-range tap.
Novakovich netted his fifth of the season to pull Lecco even again in the 56th minute, leaping high to head in a cross from Artur Ionita.
However, the hosts were able to eventually take the win convincingly, with Sounas giving them a 4-3 lead in the 66th, powerfully heading in a cross from Iemello, and Tommaso Biasci adding a fifth in the final minute of regulation, sweeping the ball over the line as he collided with another defender on the ground.
The loss drops Lecco into 16th place and one of the two relegation playoff spots, but they will be hopeful of making an immediate recovery when they host midtable Pisa on Saturday.
Venezia 5 – 3 Sampdoria
Gianluca Busio netted what would turn out to be the winning goal in Venezia’s wild thriller against visiting Sampdoria, as he and USMNT teammate Tanner Tessmann both impressed to help put the team back on track.
As has been the case more often than not this season, Busio and Tessmann were standout performers working side-by-side in Venezia’s midfield. In addition to his goal, Busio took one other shot and set up one chance, while completing 87% of his 63 passing attempts, accurately hitting four out of six long balls, winning five out of eight duels, and drawing three fouls.
Tessmann was in the thick of the action with 111 touches, 78 completed passes in 95 attempts, one shot, and a pair of created chances.
Still, Finnish veteran Joel Pohjanpalo was the hero for the night, netting the first of his three goals in the 15th minute with an adept shot with the inner side of his right foot in the 15th minute.
Leonardo Benedetti did equalize for Sampdoria at the half-hour from eight yards out, but Pohjanpalo restored the lead six minutes later from the spot, following Matteo Ricci’s clear foul on Dennis Tørset Johnsen in the right side of the area.
Sampdoria was reduced to ten men after Leonardo Benedette was shown two yellows in the space of three minutes to close out the first half, and Pohjanpalo took advantage following the break, completing his hat-trick with a lunging header in the 58th minute for the 3-1 lead.
Once again, Sampdoria head coach Andrea Pirlo saw his team fight back to pull even, as Manuel De Luca cut the lead to one goal with a looping shot from the edge of the area in the 65th minute, then Fabio Depaoli equalized in the 71st with a flukey header that evaded Jesse Joronen’s grasp.
However, with 16 minutes left in regulation, Busio gave Venezia the lead again, going airborne to head a cross toward the goal, and then knocking the ball over the line after it was initially deflected by the keeper.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson then brought the final score to 5-3 in favor of the hosts, pouncing on a loose ball and striking a hard 16-yard shot to the left of the goal.
The team’s first league win since early December sees them occupy second place, ahead of Como on tie-breakers, and trailing current leaders Parma by four points. They will be aiming to come away victorious when they visit 15th-place Cosenza on Saturday.
Notes
Tim Weah could be starting for Juventus on Tuesday when they host Sassuolo. Weston McKennie will have to be a spectator in Juventus Stadium after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season in their last outing.
Kristoffer Lund and Palermo had a tough outing on Saturday, losing 2-0 on the road at Cittadella in Serie B action. Lund played the first 77 minutes in the defense, as a 50th-minute red card doomed Palermo’s hopes of extending their unbeaten run. They are in seventh place following the result and next host ninth-place Modena.
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