Due to the Coppa Italia schedule in midweek, this weekend's league fixture is rarely split into three days. Inter Milan, the traditional powerhouse on Saturday, struggled on the road, but with their high attacking efficiency, they won 3-1 with just four shots on target against Cagliari, who had improved dramatically after the change of manager, and Icardi scored a brace to move to the top of the scorers' charts. Sampdoria, whose expression far exceeded the outside world's predictions, broke out a small upset, losing to Bologna, who have also performed well this season, by three goals.

The remaining two games were left unattended, with Chievo beating SPAL 2-1 at home and Verona beating Sassuolo by two goals away to send coach Christian Butch into a sacking crisis.

On Sunday afternoon, at 2 p.m. (21 p.m. Beijing time), AC Milan will face Torino in the 14th round of the league at their home stadium. This match is not just an ordinary matchup, but also a crucial test for Montella. While the Rossoneri have been excellent at the start of the season, their form has taken a huge dip since the 2-0 defeat at Sampdoria in the sixth round. Lost 0-2 at home to Roma, lost the city derby 2-3 "away", was forced to 0-0 by Genoa at home, lost to Juventus by two goals at home, and defeated Napoli 1-2 in the last round.

While eighth place doesn't look too bad, the Rossoneri are now a full ten points behind fourth-placed Torino and it is clear which manager will perform better, given the huge gap in investment between the two sides over the summer. Before the game, there were rumors spread by the local small media in Milan City, "Brother Li" has lost all patience, if the team can't win this game, he will hold a high-level meeting to discuss the issue of changing the coach, and the number one candidate is naturally the club owner's fellow of the Celestial Dynasty.

At the pre-match press conference, when Li Mudi heard a reporter ask him about this matter, he showed a very surprised expression, and he immediately denied the accuracy of this rumor, saying that he had never been in contact with AC Milan's management, and that the switch to San Siro in the middle of the season was completely false. However, Montella, who attended the press conference later, was relatively calm in the face of the rumors of resignation, and he firmly believed that the team's poor results were temporary, and as long as the adjustment was in place, he would soon show the strength of the top team in Serie A, so he himself would not worry about his work.

However, judging from the announced starting line-up, the home coach was still very eager to win this game, and he changed the 3-4-2-1 formation that he had been accustomed to to 3-4-1-2, and the tactical style of strengthening the attack and scoring goals has been exposed. The main concern is what the two centre-forwards, A. Silva and Kalinic, will have to start at the same time for the first time in two months, and whether they can play enough with Suso and Montelevo to penetrate the visitors' main backline. Before this game, they had already experienced a 299-minute home goal drought, and had been kept clean sheets by opponents in three consecutive home games in the league, and the lack of attacking energy was also the most important reason for the team's poor record.

Torino is facing a strong opponent away from home, although the choice of player position is the same as the opponent, but Li Mudi still uses the defensive combination of Diarra and Vukocevic in the combination of central midfield, Benasi who only played half the ball in the last round of European competition, plays the forward midfield, and Baseli sits on the bench, and the Italian international combination is naturally on the front line. Casey was the goalkeeper's choice, with the best combination of Canneman, Ranocchia and Diego Llorente at the back three, Silvestri at right wing-back and Silvestri at left-wing-back.

Everyone knows that Spanish winger Suso is the most dangerous surprise point for this AC Milan team, although the new Matadors international who left Spain early to join the English Academy (Liverpool) like Falke has good passing ability, but because of his better dribbling skills and left-footed backfoot to the right, his shot after cutting inside is his real killer feature. Every team that plays against the Rossoneri will have to do everything they can to try to limit the winger's play, and Lee's chosen approach is to have Flanagan on loan from the Reds smash Suso all over the pitch and wear them down with high-intensity physical contact, a somewhat bizarre strategy that paid off in the games that followed.

After the opening, the home team quickly got into the groove, and they took advantage of the geographical advantage and convenience to press out without temptation. In the fifth minute, Suso cut inside on the right and sent a straight ball with his left foot under the interference of Flanagant, Kalinic dodged Ranocchia with his thigh and fired a one-handed shot wide of the left post from 10 yards, but the linesman had already raised it to signal that the Croatian striker was offside. Although he didn't concede a goal, Li Muddy was obviously very dissatisfied with the team's defense this time, and he came to the sideline and yelled at several players in the backline, especially signaling the British to increase the intensity of the confrontation and not let Suso make threatening passes so easily.

Sure enough, in the ensuing confrontation, Flanagan began to use his strength and tireless entanglement frequently, and Suso had to give up his personal breakthrough and put the responsibility of attacking the organization in the hands of Montlivo in the middle. However, the Spanish winger did not stop there, and in the thirteenth minute, he deceived the reckless Torino left wing-back with his nimble style and won a free-kick from around 28 yards from goal. The 24-year-old winger also took advantage of the opportunity to show his set-piece skills, and he fired a direct left-footed shot with a good angle of power and went straight to the top right corner of the visitors' goal.

It was not the Red Bulls' character to stick to it, and they quickly found an opportunity to counter-attack, with Russ's long ball finding the right head over Belottti's head, who beat Leonardo Bonucci to flick the ball past Immobile. However, when the former Lazio striker forced his way into the penalty area and was about to knock on the middle, Romagno, who was tall and legged, used his toes to block the bottom line, otherwise the red babe who was already outflanked in front of the goal would likely pose a lethal threat to Donnarumma. Benasi's immediate corner kick was deflected wide by Belotti's header, but it was also a constant reminder that the home team players should not be careless.

Ten minutes later, AC Milan's tactical corner cross caused chaos in front of the Torino goal, and Bonucci's scramble at the back post was blocked off the crossbar by his former partner Ranocchia in Bari. Immobile quickly responded to the home team, and he turned and volleyed through Donnarumma's ten fingers in the penalty area, but the referee signaled that there was a handball action when the ball was stopped, and the goal was naturally invalidated.

However, in the first half alone, it was Montella's side who had the bigger advantage, leading the visitors in terms of time spent on the ball and the number of passes and shots on goal. However, the performance of the two strikers A. Silva and Kalinic was a little bad, the former actually poked the ball directly out of the sideline when no one was pressing, and the latter was even tricked by Cassie, and was deceived by the old goalkeeper who turned around and smashed the ball when he stepped forward to press, which became another wonderful scene. In the first 45 minutes, the two men combined to have just two shots on target and failed to hit the target, totally sorry for their high price when they joined in the summer.

Before the break, the home team Suso hit an anti-aircraft gun from the right side of the penalty area, while the visitors were Ranocchia who received a free kick from Benassi and headed wide, and neither side could change the score, so they could only return to the dressing room with a 0-0 result, hoping to break through in the second half.

In the first half, AC Milan had two shots on target from five attempts, while Torino's three shots were off target, all of which were the worst first-half records of the season for either team. Although the game looks quite intense, there are not many attacks that are really threatening, which is in line with the basic rules of competition between strong opponents.

After the rematch, Kessie used his body to knock down Benassi with the ball in the backfield, and referee Iratti did not interrupt the game, allowing AC Milan to play a quick counterattack. Leonardo Bonucci drove in from the right and then combined with Suso to kick the wall before firing a shot from a tight angle on the right side of the box and into the side-netting. The 38-year-old referee blew the penalty for the 38-year-old referee, some of his decisions are always controversial, and the Torino boss suspects that this person may be a Juventus fan because of the dismemberment of Napoli's three-goal dismemberment at home last season.

Then the home side came close to another brilliant combination when A. Silva's back-heel pass was again blocked by Kalinic from the edge of the box, and this time it was again offside. Today at the San Siro Stadium, the former captain of Real Madrid and the Spanish national team seemed to be back to the peak state of his thirties, and his reaction and prediction were among the best in the world, causing huge psychological pressure on the home team players who were eager to score, so that they could not get a shot within the frame of the ball in the next 20 minutes in pursuit of angle, which really verified the old saying "one man is the key to ten thousand people".

Seeing that the situation was getting worse, Montella brought on Calhanoglu and Cutrone in succession, replacing Bonaventura and Kalinic in an attempt to maintain the pressure in the attacking end through personnel changes. And Li Muddy also removed Belotti and Benassi at a similar point in time, allowing the more physical Falke to use his speed advantage to inflict more damage on the counter-attack. However, both teams did show the high level expected of a Serie A powerhouse in defense today, whether it was Cutrone's sudden cold arrow or Immobile's volley, neither of which created too much difficulty for the goalkeepers of both sides.

However, when the game came to the final five minutes of regular time, this slightly dull matchup could be regarded as ushering in a rare high. Tide. In the 86th minute, the home team was almost killed, after adjusting the formation, Barre Card, who turned into a left winger, crossed directly from Bonaventura, who was making up the defense, and because Mobile shook off Bonucci's sticky fish leap to the top from seven meters in front of the goal, the ball was blocked by the lightning-fast Donnarumma after a bounce on the ground, and the substitute Falke's close shot was blocked in front of the goal by Montolivo, who was back in place. All the members of the away team looked like they were holding their heads with their hands and full of regret, and Li Mudi outside the stadium even cut off his first-class hair, which became one of the jokes of the fans after being recorded by the camera.

Affected by the goal, the morale of the Torino players gradually dropped, and they were suppressed by a wave of strong attacks from the home team that escaped from death, and the Milan players formed a siege in the remaining minutes, and they almost verified another old adage that "if you don't die, you will be blessed". In the second minute of stoppage time, A. Silva won the ball in the middle of the box and distributed it to his left side, Calhanoglu met Diego Llorente's flying block from 10 meters in front of the goal and knocked the ball away, which made Montella, who had long been unable to sit still on the sidelines, look black.

In the final minute of the game, Suso's stubborn breakthrough gave AC Milan the last corner, and he sent it quickly before being cleared off by a seated Ranocchia. Montolivo found the second spot at the top of the box and fired a left-footed volley through a crowd of up to ten players, before Bonucci was parried to the right by the last-place Bonucci, who slotted home from the edge of the post and the whole San Siro erupted in loud cheers. However, without waiting for the away team players to protest, the referee Irati blew the whistle under the reflection of the referee on the bottom line, indicating that Bonucci was already in an offside position when he touched the ball, so the goal was invalidated, which was also the second goal of the game to be disallowed.

Even though AC Milan tried to persuade the referee to change the decision, Iratti, who had the support of VAR, did not waver, and after driving away the home team players who came to complain to him, he directly blew the whistle to signal the official end of the game, announcing that the two teams could only shake hands and draw 0-0.

For this result, Li Mudi is a little dissatisfied, although the Torino team is slightly behind the opponent in various statistics, but from the absolute chance of the number of opportunities, on the contrary, the red bulls should do better, but today Milan's goalkeeper and back line did play very well, defusing the away team's multiple threats and attacks, which is also helpless. However, he could not have imagined that AC Milan, who seemed to him lucky enough to get a point from Torino, was not satisfied, and let his previous title of "manager killer" appear in everyone's eyes again, because Montella was out of class.