Coppa Italia R16 | Milan 6:1 Sassuolo: Rossoneri rage

MILAN, ITALY – DECEMBER 03: Tijjani Reijnders of AC Milan celebrates scoring his team’s second goal during the Coppa Italia match between AC Milan and Sassuolo at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza on December 03, 2024 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)

Milan beat Serie B leaders Sassuolo 6-1 at the San Siro to secure their place in the Coppa Italia quarter-finals, including a brace from Samuel Chukwueze, goals from Tijjani Reijnders and Rafael Leao.

They will face either Roma or Sampdoria in the next phase of the tournament.

The Rossoneri were missing Mike Maignan, Theo Hernandez, Luka Jovic, Ismael Bennacer and Alessandro Florenzi, but they started Rafael Leao and their first-choice midfield. Sassuolo were at the top of Serie B and had won three of their last four visits to the San Siro, but also rotated with Domenico Berardi on the bench.

See how it developed in the live blog.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek stabbed the goalkeeper’s gloves in the first 90 seconds, while Tammy Abraham had the ball in the net in the ninth minute, but Rafael Leao was offside as he assisted his header.

The deadlock was broken by a sensational ball from Tijjani Reijnders that flew over the goal line to Samuel Chukwueze, who shot the first attempt in a one-on-one with the goalkeeper onto the post, but deflected the rebound over the line.

Reijnders added a goal to the assist shortly afterwards, as after Leao combined with Abraham to cut inside from the left and was blocked, the loose ball rolled into the Dutchman’s path and unleashed a devastating right-footed shot from outside the penalty area .

Sassuolo gave the ball away cheaply in the final third and Abraham immediately put the ball back to reward the onrushing Chukwueze with an angled shot into the bottom corner, completing his brace.

Milan struck again on the counter-attack moments later when Leao triggered the offside trap after a clever Loftus Cheek no-look pass and hit the bottom corner.

Loftus-Cheek nodded a free-kick wide but Marco Sportiello parried a wild long-range shot from Cristian Volpato and Janis Antiste was offside on the rebound.

Paulo Fonseca led confidently and made four changes at half-time, including the addition of teenage goalkeeper Lorenzo Torriani.

They added a fifth goal when Yunus Musah hit Satalino’s gloves and in the following corner turned Christian Pulisic’s cross into a shot that bounced off the far post, with Davide Calabria converting the rebound from a difficult angle.

Strahinja Pavlovic kept the goal intact with a crucial tackle on Samuele Mulattieri in the penalty area. A few moments later, however, Mulattieri’s finish faltered under the uncertain Torriani at the near post after Janis Antiste had set up from the right.

Abraham also got involved, turning inside from a tight angle after Noah Okafor caught a through ball and rolled it across the six-yard box.

Torriani was caught late in the gloves of Cristian Volpato.

Milan 6:1 Sassuolo

Chukwueze 12, 21 (M), Reijnders 17 (M), Leao 23 (M), Calabria 56 (M), Mulattieri 59 (S), Abraham 62 (M)

57

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90

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26

15

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40

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28

82′

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28

20

73

25

11

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80

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