MILAN: Italian champions AC Milan came away from a tough Serie A encounter at Atalanta with a hard-earned 1-1 draw on Sunday as Ismael Bennacer cancelled out an early goal by the hosts in Bergamo.

After an even start to the match, Atalanta midfielder Ruslan Malinovskyi broke the deadlock in the 29th minute with a powerful left-foot finish from the edge of the box. Milan midfielder Bennacer scored the equaliser from a corner by Alexis Saelemaekers in the 68th minute, shooting through the Atalanta defenders and into the net off the post.

Milan dominated possession and had more attempts on goal but failed to make them count.

“I think we could have done better, we could have tried to win this match. It was difficult to find room, Atalanta were compact,” Bennacer told DAZN.

The hosts were pleased with their performance.

“We played against the Italian champions and we need to be satisfied. We start again from here and we have proven that we can play at this level against the strongest also this year,” Atalanta midfielder Mario Pasalic told DAZN.

Winger Khvicha Kvarat­skhelia scored twice as hosts Napoli breezed past Serie A rookies Monza 4-0 earlier on Sunday to secure their second win of the season.

Kvaratskhelia struck in each half of a stroll at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, with Victor Osimhen netting the hosts’ second on the stroke of half-time and Kim Min-jae heading home his first goal for the club late on.

Empoli and Fiorentina held each other to a goalless draw while Bologna drew 1-1 with Verona with goals from Marko Arnautovic and Thomas Henry respectively.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2022