AC Milan had a goal chalked off by the video assistant referee, missed an open goal, were foiled by the goalkeeper and twice hit the woodwork in an extraordinary 0-0 draw at home to Sassuolo in Serie A on Sunday, as per Reuters.
The draw left the seven-times European champions 10th on 21 points and put a dampener on their 120th anniversary celebrations which saw a host of past Milan players gather on the pitch at halftime.
Milan thought they had taken the lead on the half hour when Theo Hernandez’s shot took a huge deflection and looped into the net.
The stadium announcer went through his celebration ritual and Sassuolo were waiting to restart when referee Gianluca Manganiello indicated a VAR review.
This was delayed as the official ushered players away from the pitchside monitor before the goal was disallowed for handball by Franck Kessie in the build-up. Minutes later, Milan midfielder Ismael Bennacer missed a glorious chance to score his first goal for the club.
Francesco Magnanelli lost the ball to the Algerian who burst forward, evaded a challenge from the onrushing goalkeeper Gianluca Pegolo but dallied long enough in front of an open goal for a Sassuolo player to get back and block his shot.
Pegolo atoned for his mistake with an excellent second-half performance which included an outstanding double save to stop a shot from Hakan Calhanoglu and then block Giacomo Bonaventura’s effort from the rebound.
Substitute Rafael Leao thumped a shot against the underside of the crossbar in the 84th minute and the Portuguese then saw another shot hit the post three minutes later.
It could have been worse for Milan as Sassuolo were always menacing on the break and Gianluigi Donnarumma had to be at full stretch to turn away Hamed Traore’s long-range shot near the end.
AS Roma launched a second-half comeback to beat Serie A’s bottom side SPAL 3-1 at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday and move into the top four.
Andrea Petagna’s penalty gave the visitors a shock lead late in the first half but goals from Lorenzo Pellegrini, Diego Perotti and Henrikh Mkhitaryan turned the game on its head after the break.
Roma move above Cagliari into fourth on 32 points, but the Sardinian side (29) will move ahead of them again if they beat third-placed Lazio (33) on Monday evening.
SPAL are without a league win in nine matches and are rooted to the bottom of the table with just nine points, six adrift of safety.
After dominating the first half, Roma were punished on the stroke of halftime when Aleksandar Kolarov tripped Thiago Cionek inside the box to gift the visitors a penalty, which Petagna dispatched calmly.
Roma continued to press after the break and found a fortuitous breakthrough when SPAL defender Nenad Tomovic diverted a Pellegrini cross into his own net after 53 minutes.
Perotti completed the turnaround from the penalty spot on 66 minutes after Edin Dzeko was bundled over in the box by Francesco Vicari, before substitute Mkhitaryan tapped in a third seven minutes from time.
