Udinese 2-3 AC Milan: Jovic and Okafor the heroes in dramatic late comeback

AC Milan produced a dramatic late comeback against Udinese at the Stadio Friuli on Saturday night, with two substitutes making themselves heroes off the bench.

Milan took the lead in the first half through Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s nice first-time finish, though not long after the players left the field because Mike Maignan had been subjected to repeated racist abuse.

That break seemed to rock the Rossoneri as Udinese then came from behind, equalising through Lazar Samardzic before the break and then taking the lead through Florian Thauvin in the second half.

Luka Jovic came off the bench to head in an equaliser late on from the goal line, and then it was Noah Okafor who smashed home a flicked-on corner at the near post three minutes into added time to steal the points.

Stefano Pioli chose to name an unchanged line-up compared to the team that beat Roma last weekend, with Matteo Gabbia partnering Simon Kjaer at the back and Yacine Adli keeping his place in the deeper-lying midfield role.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek was the main protagonist during some feisty early exchanges between the two sides, with the English midfielder playing a slightly more advanced midfield role yet finding himself involved deep in both halves.

Those who are not fans of short corners might have suffered from a bit of high blood pressure when Milan’s first two set pieces were taken short and failed to produce any danger at all.

Milan created the first big chance of the game on 15 minutes when Rafael Leao had a dart inside off the left and played a lovely through ball to Olivier Giroud, whose effort from a fairly tight angle was saved by the chest of Okoye.

Giroud had another chance not long after when a gorgeous cross from Theo Hernandez found his compatriot’s run in behind, yet he stabbed a weak first-time effort into the goalkeeper’s hands.

Udinese had their moments in the opening half-hour, and Kjaer made a vital intervention to deny Lucca getting an easy tap-in after Ebosele had burst past Theo Hernandez and rolled a ball across the six-yard box.

Pioli and his staff were up in arms that Milan were not awarded a penalty when Christian Pulisic seemed to be flattened by the arm of Lucca when jumped to meet a clearance from a corner, yet VAR did not intervene.

The Rossoneri did get themselves ahead just after the half-hour mark, and it came through Loftus-Cheek. A similar move nearly yielded a goal not long before, and this time Leao’s feed for Theo Hernandez’s cut-back was met by the English midfielder who finished with a first-time sidefoot.

There were some sad scenes not long after the goal as Maignan walked over towards the tunnel clearly very angry and upset with some abuse he was getting from behind the goal. The players went off the field before coming back on after a few minutes with the goalkeeper clearly still furious.

Rather than those Udinese fans getting the misery they deserved, the home side instead levelled the game. A dribble from Samardzic floored Kjaer and he fired a low shot inside the bottom corner that left Maignan rooted.

Udinese nearly found themselves through on goal in the early stages of the second half but a quite simply brilliant challenge from Gabbia on Ebosele denied them. Had he mistimed it even slightly it could have been fatal, but it was a Baresi-esque intervention.

Milan’s first chance of the second half came just before an hour had been played when Pulisic stood up a cross from the left side that Giroud met well with his head yet Okoye made a rather comfortable save.

In the 62nd minute, Udinese’s comeback was complete and it was a very poor goal for Milan to concede. The substitute Thauvin somehow emerged with the ball after going between Reijnders and Theo Hernandez, then he fired in from a narrow angle when Maignan really should have done better.

A change came midway through the second half with Reijnders withdrawn in place of Noah Okafor, marking a clear shift towards playing with another striker.

Moments after Leao’s ball across the six-yard box was not converted, a double change was made as Luka Jovic and Alessandro Florenzi came on for Pulisic and Calabria.

Jovic’s impact was instant as he levelled the game inside the final 10 minutes, though in truth he could hardly miss. A Theo Hernandez pull-back from the byline fell to Giroud whose shot rattled the cross bar and bounced right on the line, where the Serbian was waiting in an onside position to nod home.

In the third minute of added time, Milan got the winner and it came from a corner kick. A delivery to the near post was flicked on by Giroud and the substitute Okafor was waiting at the far post to control and blast home, sparking jubilant scenes.

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