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AC Milan and Fiorentina played out a 1-1 draw on Sunday at the Stadio Artemio Franchi, and it was another game that needed a late leveller.
Milan created several big chances in the first half, three of which fell to Christian Pulisic from Niclas Füllkrug. As football often goes, Fiorentina were then the one who got themselves ahead in the second half as Pietro Comuzzo headed in a corner.
It looked as though the unbeaten run was ending at 17 league games, but then Christopher Nkunku popped up in the final minute to fire in a pass from fellow substitute Youssouf Fofana. Marco Brescianini and Moise Kean came close for the hosts dying seconds, but a draw was the end result.
It is yet another case of failing to beat a team in the bottom half of the table and yet another game of two halves. Inter drawing 2-2 with Napoli means they failed to pull five points clear, but there are still warning signs. Rohit Rajeev has a tactical analysis from the game.
Set-up and early stages
Massimiliano Allegri made six changes to the starting line-up that drew with Genoa, given the game was less than 70 hours ago. The likes of Koni De Winter, Pervis Estupinan, Ardon Jashari, Samuele Ricci and Niclas Füllkrug all got the nod from minute one.
Paolo Vanoli meanwhile chose to go with a 4-1-4-1 on paper, with Fagioli anchoring the midfield behind Mandragora and Sohm. Dodo and Solomon provided width on the right, then Goose’s and Gudmundsson were on the other flank, with Kean up front.
Early on Ruben Loftus-Cheek looked to take advantage of Fiorentina’s high line. Füllkrug would drop into midfield and RLC would run past the defender.
Fiorentina played a mid-high block looking for turnovers, like how Pongracic created a turnover by tackling Füllkrug.
Similarly to how Füllkrug dropped to create space for Loftus-Cheek to run into, the Englishman would drop to draw his marker creating space for Pulisic to dart into.
Fiorentina’s main threat came through Albert Gudmundsson. The forward positioned himself between Saelemaekers and Koni De Winter which created a problem for KdW as he got overloaded a lot of times with runs from midfield in Fiorentina
Milan’s best chance fell to Pulisic as he made a run through the vacant space vacated by Comuzzo who looked to tag with Pongracic to tackle Füllkrug.
Zonal issues and late response
Fiorentina’s goal came from a set piece. Once again Milan used Zonal marking in their set piece. One of the biggest problems of zonal marking is how Comuzzo moved without any man following him.
You can see how Comuzzo started from the far post but while the corner is taken he moved to the near post and headed the ball in.
Milan equalised in the 89th minute with some good work from Saelemaekers. With him winning the duel with Fagioli, Fiorentina ran quickly to close down the space which created space in the center for Fofana. Fofana’s disguised pass gave space for Nkunku to shoot.
Comparing Pulisic’s and Nkunku’s shooting technique we can see Pulisic got into the left half space which means he has to turn to shoot. This meant that he used a side foot shot which is a shot that focuses on placement rather than power.
Nkunku put the laces through the ball which resulted in a much more powerful shot and was one that prevented De Gea from reacting. In fact, the Spaniard seemed stunned as it cannoned off the post and in.
The data
Fiorentina dominated every aspect of possession. They controlled every aspect while Milan were happy to do it. As we can Allegri played a mid to low block line against Fiorentina.
La Viola also dominated Milan physically as they won more duels than Milan showing their superiority.
Finally, another interesting point. This is the 92nd minute (+2 minutes into added time) and look how lax Milan are. Milan showed no urgency whatsoever in playing out, and this is a big issue Allegri will have to solve.
— Rohit Rajeev (@RohitRajee23232) January 13, 2026
English (US) ·