Daily Times

LEECE: Second-half goals from Rafael Leao and Davide Calabria helped champions AC Milan to fight back from two goals down and salvage a 2-2 draw at Lecce in Serie A on Saturday. Lecce shocked their more celebrated opponents when they took the lead after just three minutes, with Theo Hernandez chesting in an own goal following a defensive blunder from Pierre Kalulu. Only two minutes later the hosts could have doubled their lead when Valentin Gendrey floated a long cross to an unmarked Federico Di Francesco but the Italian winger fired the ball just outside the post. The hosts made it 2-0 in the 23rd minute after Morten Hjulmand sent a cross into the box, and defender Federico Baschirotto headed it into the right corner.

“In the first half, we got everything wrong that it was possible to get wrong. We made entirely avoidable errors and it was an uphill struggle from there,” Milan coach Stefano Pioli told DAZN. Lecce came close to scoring another goal when Gendrey latched on to a Di Francesco pass but the French defender headed wide. Milan reduced the arrears shortly after the break when Leao picked up a rebound from Falcone and fired it into the net. A well placed header from Calabria made it 2-2 in the 70th minute. “I expected a different start to the game, considering we were coming off some disappointing results. We should’ve had the quality and sharpness to control the situation better, which is what we did in the second half,” Pioli said. “We reacted well and could’ve won it at the end, but we must do much better.” The result left Milan second in the standings with 38 points after 18 games, one point ahead of Juventus and nine behind Napoli.