AC Milan’s advantage in the Serie A title can be traced to three crucial goalkeeping errors in matches involving the main title rivals over the past couple weeks.
This according to today’s print edition of Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, who highlight mistakes made by Napoli’s Alex Meret, Inter’s Andrei Radu, and Fiorentina’s Pietro Terracciano as important junctures in the title race.
Until a couple weeks ago Napoli were right there in the title race, but a 3-2 loss to Empoli all but eliminated them from the race.
In that match, a major error from Partenopei keeper Alex Meret had played an important role in gifting Andrea Pinamonti an equalizer as his team blew a 2-0 lead in a late collapse.
This left the Nerazzurri and the Rossoneri as the only realistic Scudetto contenders, with Inter having the slight advantage going into their match against Bologna last week.
The Nerazzurri would have gone two points clear with a win, and stayed within touching distance with just a one-point gap in the event of a draw, which would have given Milan no margin for error.
A late howler by Radu gave Bologna’s Nicola Sansone the easiest of finishes to complete a 2-1 comeback for the Rossoblu, however, meaning that the Rossoneri found themselves in a situation where they can afford to draw a match and still win the title.
Just a few days later, Milan found themselves with a tough match against Fiorentina, scoreless with ten minutes left to play, but an errant pass by Terracciano found itself straight to the feet of Rossoneri forward Rafael Leao.
The Portuguese made no mistake and slotted it home to complete a trilogy of goalkeeping errors which have put the wind in the Rossoneri’s sails.
