MILANO. Milan tops Sassuolo 1-0 after C. Pulišić scored just 1 goal (59′). Milan capitalized on its superior ball possession (59%).

The match was played at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza stadium in Milano on Saturday and it started at 6:00 pm local time. The referee was Livio Marinelli with the collaboration of Marcello Rossi and Marco Ricci. The 4th official was Luca Zufferli. The weather was broken clouds. The temperature was cold at 9.99 degrees Celsius or 49.98 Fahrenheit. The humidity was 59%.​

Match Statistics​

Ball possession

Milan had a superior ball possession 59% while Sassuolo was struggling with a 41% ball possession.

Attitude and shots

Milan was putting more pressure with 53 dangerous attacks and 20 shots of which 2 were on target. This is one of the reasons why Milan won the match​.

Milan shot 20 times, 2 on target, 11 off target. On the other side, Sassuolo shot 12 times, 6 on target, 3 off target.

Cards

Milan didn’t receive any yellow card. On the other side, Sassuolo received 1 yellow card (Samu Castillejo).

Standings

After this match, Milan has 36 points to hold in the 3rd place. On the opposite side, Sassuolo will stays with 16 points to sit in the 16th place.

Next matches

In the next match in the Serie A, Milan will play away against Empoli on the 7th of January with a 10-2 head to head record in favor of Milan (6 draws).

Sassuolo will host Fiorentina on the 7th of January with a 8-6 head to head in favor of Fiorentina (6 draws).

Milan – Formation

Milan adopted the 4-2-3-1 line-up (4-2-3-1).

The manager Stefano Pioli decided to play with the following team: M. Maignan (8.5), D. Calabria (7.0), S. Kjær (7.1), T. Hernández (7.5), A. Florenzi (7.5), I. Bennacer (7.9), T. Reijnders (8.4), C. Pulišić (8.1), R. Loftus-Cheek (7.0), Rafael Leão (7.5) and O. Giroud (7.0).

The home team had on the bench: Y. Adli (7.0), L. Jović (6.8), L. Romero, S. Chukwueze (6.8), R. Krunić, L. Nava, C. Traorè, Álex Jiménez, J. Šimić (6.6), A. Mirante, Clinton Nsiala, K. Zeroli (6.6) and D. Bartesaghi.

Substitutions

Milan made 4 changes: I. Bennacer for Y. Adli (63′), O. Giroud for L. Jović (63′), Rafael Leão for S. Chukwueze (81′) and S. Kjær for J. Šimić (82′).

Player of the match: M. Maignan​

As per our analysis, the most impressive player for Milan was the goalkeeper: M. Maignan. His rating is 8.47. He performed 6 saves.

Sassuolo – Formation

Also Sassuolo adopted the 4-2-3-1 line-up (4-2-3-1).

Alessio Dionisi played with: Andrea Consigli (7.3), Jeremy Toljan (7.5), Martin Erlic (6.8), Gian Marco Ferrari (6.7), Marcus Pedersen (7.0), Kristian Thorstvedt (7.1), Matheus Henrique (6.4), Domenico Berardi (7.0), Nedim Bajrami (6.4), Armand Laurienté (7.3) and Andrea Pinamonti (7.5).

The following players were sitting on the bench: Samu Castillejo (6.4), Cristian Volpato (6.8), Ruan (6.7), Filippo Missori, Samuele Mulattieri, Emil Konradsen Ceide, Agustín Álvarez, Mattia Viti, Gianluca Pegolo, Alessio Cragno and L. Lipani.

Sassuolo could not rely on the presence of Samu Castillejo (injured).

Substitutions

Sassuolo made 5 changes: Martin Erlic for Ruan (46′), Nedim Bajrami for Cristian Volpato (65′), Domenico Berardi for Samu Castillejo (70′), Kristian Thorstvedt for Emil Konradsen Ceide (89′) and Armand Laurienté for Samuele Mulattieri (89′).

Player of the match: Andrea Pinamonti​

Following our analysis, the most impressive player for Sassuolo was Andrea Pinamonti.

His rating is 7.5 with 24 passes (58% accurate) and 2 key passes. He won 7 duels out of 7.

Results of the day

These are the results of the day in the Serie A.​

• Milan – Sassuolo – 1-0
• Hellas Verona – Salernitana – 0-1
• Udinese – Bologna – 3-0
• Juventus – Roma – 1-0
• Cagliari – Empoli – 0-0
• Atalanta – Lecce – 1-0