Match Recap: Milan leave it late but beat Frosinone 2-0 at the San Siro

AC Milan came into this match knowing that only a win would do in their pursuit of Champions League football. A win over Frosinone would be crucial in their efforts towards a top four spot, and with AS Roma dropping points, and Atalanta and Inter Milan face off against Juventus and Napoli respectively, Milan had a perfect chance to pick up points on their competitors.

While it took a while, Milan eventually scored two goals in and some goalkeeping brilliance from Gigio Donnarumma kept Frosinone off the scoreline. A good win for Milan to keep them in the hunt for a top four spot, and now will wait on results elsewhere to see where they stand in the table at the end of the day.

Milan had a decent chance in the 23rd minute as Suso’s cross went just over the head of Krzysztof Piatek in the middle of the box and Fabio Borini couldn’t get to the ball at the far post. Bakayoko also went close in the 30th minute, but while his shot beat the keeper, it couldn’t beat the post and harmlessly skipped past the post.

And that was pretty much it for the first half, when both teams looked to be just going through the motions with nothing to play for, which would have made sense for the visitors in yellow, but Milan has a Champions League place on the line, yet the Rossoneri seemed to have no sense of urgency to their play.

After the restart, Borini came close on a shot that went just over the bar, while the Milan faithful rued the day that Milan’s chances on Champions League qualification were seeming to come down to if Borini could score.

Ignazio Abate, in his final home game for Milan, made a terrible mistake trying to defend a Frosinone attacker, and while he more-or-less fell on his opponent in the box, it was always going to be a penalty and the referee didn’t hesitate and pointed to the spot. Even after checking with VAR, the penalty was upheld.

So with what seemed like the team’s Champions League hopes hanging by a thread, Gigio Donnarumma made an gigantic save to keep Frosinone off the scoresheet. The Frosinone penalty taker may have telegraphed his direction a bit in the run up to the spot kick, but either way, Donnarumma made a remarkable play to make the save.

Patrick Cutrone was brought on for Tiémoué Bakayoko in the 51st minute as Gattuso looked to bring in some more firepower to get this Milan team on the board.

The change seemed to pay off a few minutes later after Piatek got his head to a Borini cross to put Milan ahead. Piatek had gone a rather long time without scoring, so it was great to see him put the ball into the back of the net and break his dry spell. It was also good to see Milan respond after almost going down a goal at the other end after the spot-kick was saved.

Suso pulled out a goal to double the Rossoneri’s advantage a few minutes after Piatek had opened the scoring. Suso scored on a brilliant free-kick from a dangerous position and while it took almost an hour, Milan appeared to have woken up and looked to grab their chance at a top-four spot.

Samu Castillejo was brought on late for Piatek and Ignazio Abate came off in the 84th minute to a standing ovation as Andrea Conti was subbed on. Donnarumma made a brilliant save in the last few minutes of the match. Luca Valzania had ghosted to the back post unmarked, but his great shot was swatted away by Donnarumma, in what would have been the save of the match had he already not saved a spot-kick in the match.

It wasn’t always pretty, and the first half was pretty dire, but Milan got the win and have given themselves a chance to get into next year’s Champions League.