May 15, (THEWILL) – On Sunday evening, AC Milan made a significant stride toward securing the Serie A title, defeating Atalanta 2-0, thanks to second-half goals from Rafael Leao and Theo Hernandez.
The Portuguese winger scored to continue his outstanding individual season, before the full-back added a memorable solo goal to move Milan closer to winning their first Scudetto in 11 years.
Yet, it was not all easy sailing against La Dea. The hosts had the stronger start, but to the sound of a bouncing San Siro, they built up their play nicely without ever threatening their visitors’ goal.
With relatively tame efforts on target, Leao and Alexis Saelemaekers forced Juan Musso to break a sweat, but I Rossoneri failed to make their pressure count before the half-time whistle – although they might have done from the penalty spot had Olivier Giroud’s 42nd-minute claim not been harshly turned down by the referee without a subsequent VAR review.
A very shocking goal drought in the contest was ultimately broken ten minutes after play resumed.
Minutes after Hernandez had gotten the crowd up with a free-kick that clipped the outside of the side netting, Leao scored a goal that got the fans up and kept them celebrating. The talismanic winger held his cool and tapped home through the legs of an onrushing Musso as he raced through on goal to latch onto Junior Messias’ wonderfully lofted through pass.
With 15 minutes remaining on the clock, Hernandez finally agreed to the celebrations at the San Siro jumping and he did so in style.
The Frenchman scored one of the season’s best goals, taking up the ball midway inside his own half, riding through multiple challenges on his way up the pitch, and slipping the ball into the opposition’s bottom corner with the coolness of a seasoned marksman, to seal a massive victory.
Milan kept their calm to finish with 82 points, leaving city rivals Inter with little choice but to win their remaining fixtures if they aim to prevent I Rossoneri from winning their first Scudetto in almost a decade as the Simone Inzaghi side travels to Cagliari on Sunday night.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
