AC Milan ideally prepared for its shock against Inter Milan on Wednesday in the first leg of the Champions League by suffocating Lazio Rome (2-0) on Saturday, despite the early exit of Rafael Leao for a muscular alert.
Ismaël Bennacer, thanks to a winning pressing (17th), and Theo Hernandez, after a fantastic ride in the middle of a pale Lazio (29th), allow the Rossoneri to temporarily regain a foothold in the Top 4, at the start of the 34th day of Serie A.
Milan (4th, 61 pts) returns to three points behind its opponent of the day (2nd) and two from Juventus (3rd) by temporarily overtaking Inter (5th, 60 pts), expected from 6:00 p.m. at AS Roma (7th, 58 pts) in another European clash.
Four days before the derby in C1, the only concern for Stefano Pioli is the alert at the start of the match for his Portuguese winger Rafael Leao, an essential offensive asset for the Milanese.
The Portuguese complained of pain in the upper right thigh after accelerating.
After a few moments of discussion with the Milanese management, he was replaced by the Belgian Alexis Saelemaekers (11th).
This substitution did not disturb his team which opened the scoring shortly after by Ismaël Bennacer: he recovered the ball by pressing in front of the Roman area then concluded acrobatically after a relay with Olivier Giroud.
Having the whole left flank for him after the exit of Leao, Hernandez had fun escaping solo on the second goal, scored with a nice long shot slightly touched.
Lazio, well muzzled by this solid Milan, never really existed except for the final minutes.
She can lose her second place on Sunday if Juventus wins in Bergamo against Atalanta (6th) in the third direct duel of the weekend for European places.
