AC Milan 0 Torino 0: Pressure on Montella intensifies after dour draw

Vincenzo Montella’s position as AC Milan head coach looks set to come under further scrutiny after his side laboured to a 0-0 draw with Torino at San Siro.

Failure to score means that the Rossoneri have now gone four home league games without hitting the back of the net – a run which has seen them fall 18 points behind Serie A leaders Napoli. 

Nikola Kalinic hit the post early on as Milan started promisingly, while Andre Silva was guilty of a glaring miss in the first half.

Torino goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu was in inspired form the second period, twice denying Kalinic and then Suso in a breathtaking few minutes.

Milan travel to Benevento next weekend as they look to kick-start their faltering season, but whether Montella will be in charge remains to be seen.

Full-Time. We tried again and again and again but the ball just didn’t go in / Fischio finale. Nonostante l’arrembaggio finale, i rossoneri non sfondano#MilanTorino 0-0 pic.twitter.com/yl0aOuISFN

— AC Milan (@acmilan) November 26, 2017

Milan’s recent home troubles were nowhere to be seen in a blistering opening 10 minutes, which could easily have seen them two goals up.

Kalinic should have opened the scoring after just four minutes, but he rushed his shot from just inside the penalty area and clipped the outside of the post.

Suso then whipped a superb free-kick towards the top corner from fully 30 yards, which Sirigu did wonderfully to claw away for a corner.  

The hosts continued to look threatening going forward and Silva squandered a glorious opportunity to open his Serie A account for the club midway through the half.

The Portugal striker, who has scored eight goals in this season’s Europa League, stretched to meet Cristian Zapata’s teasing cross eight yards out, but inexplicably sent his effort wide of Sirigu’s left post. 

Meanwhile in the San Siro stands… Shades of a Red and Black legend @FBaresi
 La leggenda rossonera Franco #Baresi sugli spalti per #MilanTorino pic.twitter.com/Vofa7UoeVb

— AC Milan (@acmilan) November 26, 2017

Suso saw a dangerous left-foot effort well held by Sirigu at the start of the second period as Milan continued to do all the pressing. 

The unlikely figure of Leonardo Bonucci then made a surging run out of defence, which resulted in him drilling an effort into the side netting. 

Sirigu produced a magnificent double save after 66 minutes to deny Kalinic, first pushing away his powerful header and then springing up to block his follow-up effort with his legs. 

He followed this moments later with another smart save to repel Suso’s low drive from the edge of the area as Milan belatedly cranked up the pressure. 

Torino offered next to nothing in an attacking sense, but only superb interventions from Gianluigi Donnarumma and Riccardo Montolivo denied them all three points with five minutes remaining.

The Milan goalkeeper got down well to save Andrea Belotti’s initial header and then Montolivo threw himself in the way of substitute Iago Falque’s goal-bound follow-up.

Perhaps fittingly, though, the final word went to the outstanding Sirigu, who magnificently tipped over substitute Hakan Calhanoglu’s fierce drive at the death.

Key Opta stats:

– AC Milan failed to score for four Serie A home games in a row for the third time in their history (previously in December 2007 and April 1984).
– Milan failed to score against Torino after scoring at least one goal in the previous 13 league games vs the Granata.
– Torino have won only one of their last nine Serie A matches (D5, L3).
– Milan have collected only 20 points so far, nine fewer than after 14 matchdays in the last campaign.