Carlos Bacca broke his goal drought, but Milan still couldn’t manage more than a 1-1 draw against Lazio.
The Rossoneri had one point from the last two games, but welcomed back Riccardo Montolivo and Luiz Adriano from injury, though M’Baye Niang and Juraj Kucka were sidelined.
Lazio were in crisis, having crashed out of the Europa League on Thursday with a 3-0 home defeat to Sparta Prague. The injury list included Abdoulay Konko, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Ricardo Kishna, Stefan Radu, Dusan Basta, Stefan De Vrij and Ravel Morrison.
Lazio hadn’t conquered San Siro in 25 years, earning 10 draws and 15 Serie A defeats here against Milan since the 1-0 success in September 1989. That was decided by a Paolo Maldini own goal.
Despite all that, it was the Aquile who took the lead after nine minutes when Marco Parolo was allowed a free header on a Lucas Biglia corner.
Milan fought back and Luiz Adriano showed great strength to hold off his marker, setting up Carlos Bacca to blast in from 12 yards. It ended his four-round dry spell in which he’d had no shots on target, let alone goals.
Keisuke Honda lost his footing shoulder-to-shoulder with Wesley Hoedt, but had timid penalty appeals waved away. Cristian Zapata cleaned up after Alessandro Matri squirmed between three defenders in the box and Jack Bonaventura’s header was deflected wide.
On 37 minutes Bonaventura’s free kick flew over the wall and smacked Federico Marchetti’s crossbar.
Straight after the restart, Bacca pounced on Edson Braafheid’s error to shoot on the half-volley, stinging Marchetti’s gloves at the near post.
Bonaventura’s scorcher was also fingertipped over the bar and Honda horribly hoofed a smart Bacca assist over from the edge of the box. Bonaventura tried to curl in directly from a tight angled free kick, but 17-year-old Gigio Donnarumma was decisive with a remarkable save to turn Felipe Anderson’s angled drive inches past the far post.
Moments later it was Marchetti’s turn to impress, fingertipping a Bonaventura volley on to the upright at the back stick from Honda’s cross.
Mario Balotelli replaced the exhausted Luiz Adriano and was loudly jeered by the San Siro crowd. He did impress with some fancy footwork and a cross-shot for Bonaventura at the far post, decisively blocked.
Senad Lulic received a second yellow card for holding back Honda and this red means he will be suspended for the Derby della Capitale against Roma.
Balotelli failed to meet a corner in stoppages when he would’ve had a free header, while Cristian Zapata was lucky not to give away a penalty when blocking Filip Djordjevic’s shot with his arm.
Milan: Donnarumma; Abate, Zapata, Romagnoli, Antonelli; Honda (Menez 84), Bertolacci, Montolivo, Bonaventura; Bacca, Luiz Adriano (Balotelli 74)
Lazio: Marchetti; Patric, Bisevac, Hoedt, Braafheid; Parolo, Biglia, Lulic; Candreva (Mauricio 88), Matri (Djordjevic 79), Felipe Anderson
Ref: Tagliavento
Sent off: Lulic 84 (L)
