AC MILAN AND TEAMS FROM THE SOUTH: TIME MACHINE
History
Taking on AC Milan at San Siro is, for any team in the Italian league, one of those 'red circle' appointments in every season's calendar. Doing so when it involves a long away trip and is not entirely customary adds an undoubtedly special flavour to such an occasion. This is the case for several newly-promoted sides in the Serie A, teams of lesser blazon than the Rossoneri but always determined to do battle on such an important stage. We approach the match against Salernitana by reliving three past matches against teams from the South, matches with non-trivial results that perhaps tend, unfairly, to get lost in the memory of their respective seasons, in today's Time Machine.
19 JANUARY 1992: VAN BASTEN HAT-TRICK TO STOP ZEMANLANDIA
Outside of the big names in Italian football, few stories in the early 1990s captured the attention of Italian football fans like the epic story of Zdeněk Zeman's Foggia. The Apulians, newly promoted to the top flight, were seventh in the table on the last matchday of the first half of the season, 10 points behind the leading (and unbeaten) AC Milan. It was expected to be a spectacle from two teams with high attacking potential - at the end of the season AC Milan and Foggia would be the two best attacks in Serie A 1992/93 - and the expectations were not betrayed: the 90 minutes at the San Siro were sealed by Marco van Basten, who stopped the Foggia advance with a spectacular hat-trick. Two goals, the first and third, on penalties, interspersed with a well taken right-footed volley on a cross from Gullit.
18 DECEMBER 2005: THRASHING REVENGE ON MESSINA
The year 2004 was undoubtedly a magical one for Messina: firstly for the return to Serie A after an absence of more than 40 years, then for the start of a record-breaking season in the top flight (finishing 7th) marked also by the success at San Siro against reigning Italian champions AC Milan. Matchday 16 of the 2005/06 season therefore offered the Rossoneri an opportunity for a little revenge. Compared to the previous year, the situation of the two teams was certainly different: The Diavolo leading at the top of the table, and The Peloritani in the midst of a relegation struggle. Ancelotti's team, in what was also the last home match of the calendar year, amply respected the predictions: they opened the scoring with two goals - in the 23rd and 48th minute - by Shevchenko, the Rossoneri then closed out the match at the end, with goals from Pirlo and Gilardino for the final 4-0.
4 DECEMBER 2016: PAŠALIĆ AND LAPADULA TOPPLE CROTONE
After Puglia and Sicily, our brief tour of the South ends in Calabria. 2016/17 was Crotone's historic first year in Serie A, but not their first encounter with AC Milan: in the very previous season, the Pitagorici faced the Rossoneri in the fourth round of the Coppa Italia, forcing Mihajlović's side into extra time. Despite the difference in the standings - AC Milan second, four points behind Juventus, and Crotone last, tied with Palermo - San Siro saw a balanced affair, with Falcinelli opening the scoring in the 26th minute. Although Pašalić, who had been the star player three weeks later in the Supercoppa, restored parity at the end of the first half, the winning goal only came in the final minutes thanks to Gianluca Lapadula, who scored his first goal at San Siro in the Rossoneri shirt in the 86th minute.
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