Lazio and Milan were held level in an entertaining 2-2 draw at the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday evening, with goals coming from Strahinja Pavlovic, Taty Castellanos, Boulaye Dia and substitute Rafael Leao, who caused a bit of a stir with his reaction to being left out of Paulo Fonseca’s starting line-up.
There were also two assists from debutant and Arsenal loanee Nuno Tavares, while Tammy Abraham also registered one for himself on his first appearance for the Rossoneri.
Check out the player ratings from Saturday’s stalemate in Rome.
Lazio 2-2 Milan: Player ratings
Lazio: Provedel 5; Lazzari 5 (Marusic 5), Patric 5, Romagnoli 6, Nuno Tavares 8; Guendouzi 6, Rovella 6; Tchaouna 5 (Isaksen 6.5), Dia 7 (Dele-Bashiru n/a), Zaccagni 6; Castellanos 7 (Noslin n/a).
Best Lazio Player: Nuno Tavares 8 – Two assists on his debut for the Arsenal loanee. Both similar crosses, both perfectly timed. He brought a lot of energy to Lazio’s left-hand side and was particularly useful going forwards on the overlap. At times, he had Emerson Royal on toast in a strange sort of Serie A North London derby of unwanted full-backs. Now at Lazio on loan with a probable obligation to buy, it was a pretty ideal start for the Portuguese on a personal level, a slight shame about the result, though.
Coach: Marco Baroni 7 – A sloppy piece of defending early on cost Lazio what could have possibly been a 2-1 victory on the night. Baroni said it himself that Lazio grew into the game as time went on, and were a lot stronger in the second half than they were in the first. The players he decided to bring in certainly paid off though, with debutant Nuno Tavares getting two assists and Boulaye Dia, on his first start, grabbing the Biancocelesti’s second of the evening. Still room for improvement, but not a bad second-half performance.
Milan: Maignan 6; Emerson Royal 4 (Theo H. 6), Tomori 5, Pavlovic 7, Terracciano 6; Fofana 6, Reijnders 5.5 (Musah 6); Chukwueze 5 (Leao 6.5), Loftus-Cheek 5.5, Pulisic 6.5; Okafor 5.5 (Abraham 6.5).
Best Milan player: Pavlovic/Pulisic/Leao/Abraham/Pulisic 6.5 – It was all looking so perfect 10 minutes in for Pavlovic; a big header to put Milan into the lead, his first in Rossoneri colours and just two games into his Serie A career, followed up with a goal-denying stop down the other end shortly after the restart. Slightly less convincing defensively in the second half, when Taty Castellanos got in front of him for Lazio’s first goal, before losing a battle with Boulaye Dia for their second.
Rafael Leao also comes away with the same rating, creating and finishing a brilliant bit of play on the break to net the equaliser. A slight shame about how things went down between him, Theo Hernandez and Paulo Fonseca – that could have been handled better by all parties. Tammy Abraham also looked bright and hungry on his first appearance. Christian Pulisic showed why he should be a guaranteed starter when available.
Coach: Paulo Fonseca 5.5 – Made a very brave call by leaving out two of Milan’s biggest stars, who didn’t seem best pleased with the decision after they came on. It was a huge call to make so early on in the season, and there will certainly be plenty of questions asked about that choice. If anything, it did seem like he got an extra bit of desire out of Leao, who showed a lot of determination with his run and thumping finish for Milan’s equaliser. All of his subs performed relatively well, to be fair.
Still, the Rossoneri are not looking like the finished product yet, and that needs to change sooner rather than later. It will be interesting to see how the team perform after the international break.
