Milan (AFP)
AC Milan qualified for the quarter-finals of the Italian Cup by beating Torino on penalties on Tuesday night (0-0, 5-4 tab).
Despite the return of Zlatan Ibrahimovic at the forefront of the attack, Stefano Pioli's men, 2-0 winners of the same opponent three days earlier in the league, this time did not find the fault and had to recover from it to Ciprian Tatarusanu, the No. 2 goalkeeper, who stopped Tomas Rincon's shot on goal.
Injured in the thigh in Naples on November 22, "Ibra" regained his starting position after a short appearance at the end of the match on Sunday, but weighed very little on the defense of Torino, before being replaced at the half-time by Hakan Calhanoglu.
This return was followed by an avoidable loss, that of Gianluigi Donnarumma, sent off in the 71st minute while on the bench.
The Rossoneri's No. 1 goalkeeper challenged the referee's decision not to call a penalty despite a contentious intervention by Vanja Milinković-Savić on Rafael Leao.
But Donnarumma's replacement showed that he was more than just a substitute, by qualifying a Milan team which stumbled on a well-grouped block and showed clumsiness on its few occasions (58th, 87th, 99th, 117th).
The Milanese will face in the quarter-finals the winner of the Inter-Fiorentina match, which is played on Wednesday.
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