AC Milan sneaked out a 1-0 victory over Chievo thanks to a close range goal from Riccardo Montolivo which extended their winning run to five games. Milan sit 3rd in the table with 57 points, 2 points behind second place Napoli.
3 Things We Learned From The Game:
Super Mario is expected to score in every game now. Against Chievo, he came close about a dozen times and it was his thunderous strike from a set piece which was parried by the goalkeeper right on the foot of an onrushing Riccardo Montolivo who netted in comfortably. Balotelli almost repeated the same trick minutes later as he thumped in another low free-kick sensing the Chievo keeper Christian Puggioni’s weakness with the dead ball situation, but this time Puggioni cleared the ball before the Milan players could get it.
Milan continued to dominate large spells of possession in the water logged Cheivo pitch and Balotelli fired in as many as 5 free-kicks before the half time break and if not for Chievo’s resolute defenders Balotelli could have scored an hat-trick. His average rating Serie A matches should tell the story of the player’s improvement since his move to Milan.
Riccardo Montolivo has finally made the jump we have all been waiting for during his time at Fiorentina. Now that he’s surrounded by more talent, Riccardo has been an essential part of Milan’s midfield. His defending has also been noteworthy, and he has seemingly evolved into a more box-to-box type player instead of purely a play-maker. He was the quickest to react to poke home from inside the six-yard area which turned out to be the winning goal.
The midfielder who besides scoring was instrumental in almost everything that Milan did. From attack to defense the Montolivo lead the team like De Sciglio once did.
Milan are finally getting the dirty results that lead to Championships. It sounds like a cliche, but in the first part of the season it seemed everything was going against the Rossoneri. Now, they have been the best team record wise in the 2013 season. A fantastic turnaround spearheaded by great January transfer window signings.