Milan expels Empoli in ten against ten: first goal for Santiago Gimenez
Empoli-Milan 0-2
Milan beat Empoli at the "Castellani" 2-0 in the match, played late Saturday afternoon, valid for the 24th day of Serie A. It was an important success for the Rossoneri, who celebrated Rafael Leao’s return to scoring in the league after three weeks and the first ever goal with the Diavolo jersey of Santiago Gimenez, who arrived from Feyenoord at the end of the winter soccer market session.
The match, in spite of all predictions, è was decidedly balanced in the first half and indeed Empoli (who lost Viti to injury on 28', replaced by Goglichidze) came dangerously close to scoring at the twilight of the fraction when Lorenzo Colombo, a striker among others who grew up in the Rossoneri club, shot from a safe distance but hit the inside post, with the ball going back in on this side of the goal line.
Sergio Conceiçao makes as many as three changes after halftime, with Leao, Santiago Gimenez and Pulisic taking the place of Alex Jimenez, Abraham and Fofana. At 55'però things seemed to get equally bad for the guests: on an action in which the linesman did not raise the flag and the referee let it play, Tomori intervened late on Colombo and picked up his second yellow. The Milan player protests, clamoring for offside, but the Var cannot intervene and the red card remains.
Ten minutes pass, però, and numerical parity is restored when Marianucci commits a reaction foul on Gimenez and referee Pairetto has no doubts in drawing the direct red. Three minutes later Milan went ahead: a cross from Pulisic and Leao’s header past Vasquez for 1-0. Empoli does not have the strength to react, the guests (for whom Thiaw enters in place of Rejinders a minute after the lead), on the other hand, are galvanized and at 76'celebrate the first Italian goal by Gimenez, whose left-footed shot leaves no chance for the opposing goalkeeper.
Pure academy in the last quarter of an hour, there are in Empoli the entries of Kouamé for Henderson, Zurkowski for Colombo, Bacci for Grassi and Konaté for Sebastiano Esposito, while Milan replaces Joao Felix with Terracciano to close in better in the final rounds of hands. It ends 2-0, Milan rises to 38 points, Empoli remains at 21.
