A forlorn Milan salvaged a draw in extremis against Cremonese

A goal from Messias’ set pieces in stoppage time allowed Milan to save the tools and scratch out a forlorn draw against a Cremonese who dreamed of a miracle thanks to Okereke’s superb goal in the 77th minute . The penultimate place, with one leg in Serie A , took the lead in their first approach to the match but succumbed to Milan’s final rush, drawing level in the 93′ and having chances to win.

Pioli abused the rotations, leaving heavyweights like Theo, Krunic, Leao and Giroud on the bench, thinking that the Cremonese would be a piece of cake, but the Rossoneri team entered the game relaxed and indifferent . In an insipid first half, they hardly had a chance to score against the visitors, where a bit of defensive organization was enough to prevent them from threatening.

Goalless in the first 45 minutes, Milan put on overalls after the break and began to create more chances by forcing than by playing. Brahim had the clearest but missed a simple header into the goal mouth and Pioli opted to bring out all the artillery.

Leao, Tonali, Giroud and Krunic came on and with the goal looking like an hour, Okereke latched on to a long ball, made trouble for Kalulu and Thiaw in a brilliant maneuver and beat Maignan to reverse a disbelieving San Siro (77′ ) .

Milan went all out for the tie as defeat dropped them out of the European positions and they continued to gather strategies. The winner was in hand with two minutes to go but Messias converted a free kick that went through a jungle of feet before going into Carnesecchi’s net.

Things went from bad to worse for the Cremonese due to Pickel’s straight red card for a massive tackle on Tonali, spotted from VAR. With one down, the visiting team hung from the crossbar in agonizing minutes and salvaged an utterly inadequate point for Milan, who have their head in the Champions League.