Milan held at Bologna ahead of Champions League decider at Napoli

BOLOGNA: AC Milan were held to a 1-1 draw by Bologna on Saturday as a second-string line-up slipped in Serie A’s top four race ahead of a Champions League showdown with Napoli. The Italian champions travel to Naples with a one-goal lead to defend in Tuesday’s quarter-final second leg and the Milan coach’s decision to rest his stars at in-form Bologna led to a stalemate which leaves his team fourth in Italy’s top flight, level on 53 points with third-placed Roma.

Coach Stefano Pioli dropped every single outfield player from Wednesday’s win and Nicola Sansone slammed home Stefan Posch’s cross for the hosts just 33 seconds into the match at the Stadio Dall’Ara. Milan recovered from the early shock, quickly took control of the match and, after Ante Rebic and Alessandro Florenzi, both forced decent saves from Lukasz Skorupski, Tommaso Pobega slammed the leveller in off the post four minutes before the break.

Pioli began to bring on his more trusted players midway through the second half but form forward Brahim Diaz and Rafael Leao failed to find the breakthrough which would have ensured them a spot in the Champions League places for at least another week. Instead his side can be overtaken by Inter Milan, who sit two points behind their local rivals and host fellow Lombardy outift Monza in Saturday’s late match.

“We shouldn’t have conceded a goal like that so early, we controlled the match, we didn’t let Bologna play their usual way and we created a lot,” said Pioli to DAZN. “We weren’t accurate enough with the chances we created...