AC Milan and AS Roma drew 1-1 with Cremonese and Monza respectively in the 33rd round of Serie A on May 3.
AC Milan’s eight-match winning streak at home against newly promoted opponents was cut short when Stefano Pioli’s teachers and students let Cremonese hold back. AC Milan held the ball 74% and shot 18 times, but it took Junior Messias’ third-minute strike to keep a point at the San Siro.
Things would not have been difficult for Milan, if VAR had not denied Alexis Saelemaekers’ goal in the 11th minute. The home team then missed many opportunities, only to pay the price when the official time was 13 minutes. David Okereke eliminated Pierre Kalulu and Malick Thiaw, before finishing off Mike Maignan.
Cremonese, the team seven points behind the safety group before round 33, seemed to have a valuable victory to keep the hope of relegation. But Junior Messias’ free kick at the end of the game made the visitors unable to leave with three points. The result of a 1-1 draw did not make either team satisfied. Milan dropped to sixth with 58 points, two points behind the top four.
Also stumbled before the newly promoted team AS Roma. Jose Mourinho’s students took the lead at home Monza thanks to a goal from Stephan El Shaarawy in the 24th minute, but was equalized by Luca Caldirola 10 minutes later. The second half saw a deadlock for the visitors, and the disappointment culminated when Zeki Celik received a red card at the end of the game. For the first time in 24 years, Roma could not win away from three rookies of Serie A. Mourinho’s teachers and students temporarily ranked seventh, equal to AC Milan.
The teams that benefited from the draws of Milan and Roma last night were Lazio and Inter. While Lazio beat Sassuolo 2-0 to move up to second with 64 points, Inter scored six goals against Verona. Edin Dzeko and Lautaro Martinez scored twice, Hakan Calhanoglu contributed one and Verona’s Adolfo Gaich owns one. The 6-0 victory helped Inter raise the winning streak against Verona to six. Scored six goals away from home for the first time since 2013, Inter returned to the top four with 60 points.
The race for the top 4 of Serie A becomes hot when the season has five rounds left. Not to mention Napoli will almost win the title soon, the gap from second team Lazio to seventh team AS Roma is only six points. The remaining teams in this group that did not play last night were Juventus (63 points) and Atalanta (58 points).