AC Milan managed to teach a lesson on how to overcome a terrible week by playing at your best and having a strong, put-together team. After their defeat against Barcelona, Milan managed to win against Palermo, and boost their moral even further. Super Mario scored both goals, with the first being after just eight minutes after the start, coming from a penalty.
Milan were the much better team throughout the game, and gave Palermo little chances for any kind of game in their half of the field. Kevin Prince Boateng had a chance to score an amazing goal in the 17th minute, right before Steven von Bergen cut his efforts out.
Palermo requested a penalty, when according to them; Cristian Zapata touched the ball with his hand, while tipping it forward from Paulo Dybala, but the referee judged everything as being out of the penalty area. This caused an obvious frustration, and their mood stayed gloom for the entire game, as Josip Ilicic didn’t take advantage of a free kick to even the score.
Mario Balotelli had several other chances to score, but neither came to happen, up until the 66th minute, when even though Aronica deflected Niang’s shot, Balotelli was there with an amazing shot into the roof of the net, a thing which prompted Super Mario to say: “We want to win all our matches from here to the end of the season. I’m here to win and I have to do all I can to make sure this team wins. If I play I try and score and if I don’t score, I try and build up my teammates, some are even younger than me. Niang is a great player he just needs you to talk to him in a certain way. You have to explain that he has to do the easy things in some parts of the game and the difficult things in other parts. Of course, it can happen to me too to make mistakes.”
It was a good day for Milan, but their celebration might have been tampered, as Boateng was forced off the field in the last 10 minutes with a shoulder injury, as a result of a clash in the 49th minute with Andre Dias. Even if Boateng attempted to play afterwards it was visible his injury had more than he left for the fans to see.
As a result of Napoli’s win over Atalanta, Milan remain in third place in Serie A, but with 8 games to go, Rossoneri are hoping to climb up that second spot and go for a Champions League adventure, while Palermo continues to struggle on the 20th place.
Result: +6.48, bet won