MILAN MARCH ON


(IN THE PHOTO: the team celebrate Antonelli’s goal) 
MILAN – Luca Antonelli’s goal on the stroke of half-time gave Milan a 1-0 victory over Torino at the San Siro on Saturday night in round 27 of Serie A. Milan came charging out of the blocks and pinned Toro back in the opening exchanges, but failed to break down a resilient away defence and find a way through.Torino were happy to allow Milan most of the ball, sit deep and strike on the counter-attack; a tactic which saw the Granata enjoy the first real chances of the match.Milan weathered the storm however and took control again in the closing stages of the half, and after hitting the bar through a curling Keisuke Honda free-kick, Daniele Padelli was then forced into a top save on a Jack Bonaventura scorcher.The Rossoneri’s efforts paid off on the cusp of half-time when Juraj Kucka headed a corner into the path of Luca Antonelli and the defender made no mistakes to bury the ball into the back of the net from close range.There were no more goals in the second-half although Bonaventura sent a curling effort wide of the mark while Carlos Bacca had a goal rightly ruled out for offside.At the other end, Gigio Donnarumma, fresh from turning 17 earlier in the week, made a flying save at the near post on a powerful strike from Immobile.Click here for the minute by minute match-report. Here below meanwhile are the stats to emerge from the match:6 – the points won by the Rossoneri this season thanks to Luca Antonelli. In addition to scoring the match-winner versus Toro, he also scored the decisive goal in the home win over Chievo earlier in the season.4 – the number of clean-sheets by the Milan rear-guard from the first 8 matches of the second half of the season. The team kept just 3 clean sheets in the first half of the season.9 – the 1-0 victory against Torino has taken the team’s unbeaten streak, which started on January 9 away to Roma, to nine league games.