AC Milan 1-0 Udinese: Chukwueze goal and defensive resilience earn win with 10 men | OneFootball

AC Milan returned to winning ways at Serie A on Saturday evening down as they ran out 1-0 victors against Udinese, but the scoreline doesn’t even begin to tell the story.

Milan started the game well and took the lead through Samuel Chukwueze’s first league goal of the season, though things turned quickly when Tijjani Reijnders saw red before the half-hour mark for what was adjudged to be a last-man challenge on Lovric.

However, the Rossoneri defended resiliently as Udinese sent cross after cross into the box. The away side thought they had snatched a point in the 95th minute (of 103 that were actually played) when Kabasele bundled in a scrappy goal, yet VAR came to the rescue.

Paulo Fonseca named a bold starting line-up for the game with a brand new centre-back pairing of Malick Thiaw and Strahinja Pavlovic, then Filippo Terracciano replacing the suspended Theo Hernandez at left-back.

Noah Okafor started over Rafael Leao on the left wing and that wasn’t the only change in attack as Christian Pulisic played down the middle meaning Samuel Chukwueze got the nod on the right wing.

Milan first broke through Udinese’s stern five-man defence in the ninth minute when Pavlovic played a lovely ball over the top for Okafor who surged into space down the left, but shot straight into the hands of the goalkeeper after his square option Alvaro Morata had been taken out off the ball.

That particular attack seemed to show Milan the route to go down, and it was Okafor who provided the spark for the opening goal 13 minutes in. He burst past Ehizibue and passed inside to Pulisic, who controlled and fed Chukwueze’s run down the right, with the Nigerian finishing brilliantly via a low curling shot into the far corner.

Milan straight away went in search of a second goal and they twice came close. An easy save from Mike Maignan on Ehizibue was then followed by a swift counter that saw Okafor cross for Alvaro Morata, who met it well but headed too centrally.

Not long after, a corner wasn’t cleared by the visitors and Chukwueze headed back into a dangerous area, yet Reijnders lashed over first time from a few yards out albeit with a narrow angle.

Just before the half-hour mark, the referee Daniele Chiffi made a very controversial decision as he sent Reijnders off for a last man challenge. Quite how Lovric had got in behind remains questionable, yet there appeared to be minimal contact between the two before the midfielder threw himself to the ground.

Chiffi gave himself time to think, brandished the red card and the VAR team decided to uphold the call. Zemura was then presented with a free-kick from 20 yards out to try instantly equalise, which he whipped just wide of the near post.

Udinese briefly thought that they had equalised right on the strike of half-time when they had the ball in the back of the net through Ehizibue. A cross from the left towards Lucca then landed in front of the wing-back who finished from close range, but the offside flag rightly went up.

Milan had the chance to double their advantage in the third minute of added time as Okafor again had space to attack and played in Chukwueze, whose near-post shot was deflected behind for a corner that came to nothing.

Fonseca decided to wait until the interval to make a change and bring on a midfielder to replace Reijnders, having pushed Pulisic back in the minutes prior. Okafor was the one who unfortunately had to make way after an energetic first half, with Yunus Musah coming on to take his place.

The first incident of the second half was one that could and probably should have seen the numbers evened at 10 vs. 10. Chukwueze went down writhing in a lot of pain after spinning Isaac Toure, and replays showed the defender stamped down on the top of his foot, yet Maurizio Mariani in the VAR room did not call Chiffi over for a look.

The referee had set his stall out with the earlier red card, turning the game into a bit of a farce, and Udinese were claiming penalty for a challenge from Pavlovic in which his follow through caught the man inside the box. However, it wasn’t a reckless follow through and in any case Karlstrom might have been offside prior to the ball entering the box.

The game then rather predictably descended into a pattern of Milan ceding possession to the away team and clearing cross after cross while looking to counter when possible. Udinese brought on Davis, Kamara, Ekkelenkamp and Payero within a 10-minute stretch to try break the lock.

Musah turned himself into trouble inside the final 20 minutes and had the ball robbed deep in the Milan half by David. Thankfully, Ekkelenkamp’s first shot since coming on curled over the bar.

A change followed from Fonseca as he withdrew Morata – who had done a lot of running from the frontline – to replace him with Tammy Abraham.

Abraham was close to making an instant impact when Pulisic collected his knockdown and drew a brilliant save that produced a rebound the Englishman pounced on. He couldn’t bundle it in and then ended up on the floor in agony having popped his shoulder out, so Ruben Loftus-Cheek came on to replace him.

Moments before their final change to bring on Brenner, Bijol let fly from 25 yards out for the Zebrette and the attempt whistled not too far wide of Maignan’s right post.

As Udinese continued to load crosses into the box from wide areas Fonseca chose to make another change as Chukwueze made way for Fikayo Tomori to add another centre-back for aerial duels.

In the fifth minute of added time, Udinese believed they had got the equaliser that they had in truth not deserved when a cross ricocheted around inside a box and a rebound from a heroic Maignan save was headed in by Kabasele. There looked to be nothing wrong with the goal, and yet the referee was summoned to the monitor to determine if an offside player was involved enough, and the goal was chalked off.