Italian League .. Bologna "fighter" surprises Milan and ignites the title struggle

Encouraged by his Serbian coach Sinisa Mihajlovic, who was lying in hospital after a setback in his struggle with leukemia, Bologna fought its host Milan fiercely and imposed a negative draw on Monday at the end of the 31st stage of the Italian League, thus igniting the title struggle that the owner of the land has dreamed of since 2011.

Milan entered Milan His match and his guest in front of full stadiums in "San Siro" for the first time since the outbreak of the Corona virus in early 2020, and he is a candidate to resolve the three points, as he emerged victorious from his last six matches with his guest and in 11 out of the last 12 confrontations between them.

But the Bologna players responded to the call of their coach Mihajlovic, who demanded them in a video clip from the hospital, “to fight for me because I am fighting for you,” and imposed a draw on Milan, whose series of successive victories stopped at three and became only a point ahead of Napoli, the second winner on Sunday at its host Atalanta. 3-1, and four against its neighbor, the defending champion, Inter, who returned from the Juventus stadium with a 1-0 victory, to enter strongly again in the conflict, especially since he has a postponed match.

The competition ignited completely 7 stages before the end of the season, especially since Milan awaits difficult confrontations from now until the end against Lazio in Rome (stage 34), and its guests Fiorentina (35) and Atalanta (37 penultimate).

- The dream of the first domestic double ever - Milan wishes the soul to win the local double for the first time in its history if it crowned the cup competition for the first time since 2003, but first it must overcome its arch-rival Inter in the second leg of the semi-final on the current 19 after they tied negatively in the first leg, before meeting The winner of the match between Juventus and Fiorentina (the first won the first leg away from home, 1-0).

In the absence of his coach, Mihajlovic, who relapsed after the return of leukemia, from which he was cured in 2019, forcing him to enter the hospital for treatment, Bologna started the match without any contract and was even the most dangerous party in the first minutes.

With veteran Swede Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ivory Coaster Frank Case and Croatian Ante Rebic on the bench, Pioli relied on French Olivier Giroud, Portugal's Rafael Liao, Spain's Ibrahim Dias and Brazilian Junior Messias offensively, with the support of Algerian Ismail Bennacer and Sandro Tonali.

Milan gradually entered the atmosphere and Liao was close to opening the scoring with a powerful shot, but his attempt went over the bar (15), but Bologna responded with a long shot from Austrian Marko Arnautovic over the bar (21) and then with a ground attempt by Swiss Michel Abecher that was blocked by French goalkeeper Mike Manian. (22) The one who blocked a missile shot from outside the area by the Gambian Musa Barrow (27).

Despite some chances from both sides, the equalizer remained dominant until the end of the first half, then Milan II began to press and Liao was close to opening the scoring after a great individual effort, but Polish goalkeeper Lukassk Skorobsky starred in his face (47).

Ineffective substitutions - In light of the lack of effectiveness in front of the goal, despite the entry of Rebic instead of Junior Messias and several attempts, most notably for the Croatian alternative and Ben Nasser, Pioli threw Ibrahimovic and Casey instead of Giroud and Ben Nasser in search of deciphering the guest defense code (70).

From his first touch, Ibrahimovic almost caused the opening goal by passing the ball to Yao inside the area, but the latter hit it near the left post (72).

Milan pressed in the last minutes and got some chances, most notably Rebic's header, the goalkeeper's brilliance in blocking it (2+90), but he failed to reach the net to be satisfied with his fifth draw this season.

In a second match, Argentine striker Giovanni Pablo Simeone returned his team Hellas Verona to victories by scoring the winning goal against visiting Genoa, who is threatened with a 1-0 relegation.

Simeone, loaned from Cagliari and the son of Atletico Madrid coach Diego, scored in the fifth minute, taking his tally to 16 goals this season.

According to "Opta" statistics, Simeone became only the second player in Verona's history to score more than 15 goals in one season, after former international striker Luca Toni, who scored 20 goals in the 2013-2014 season and 22 in the 2014-2015 season.

Gianluca Caprari almost added the second in the first half, but his ball hit the post.

Verona did not taste victory in the previous three stages, as it drew 1-1 against Fiorentina and Empoli and lost at home to Napoli 1-2.

Verona, which won its twelfth victory this season, raised its score to 45 points in ninth place, while Genoa's balance and summer bottom froze at 22. 

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