Milan alleviated their crisis when Patrick Cutrone gave them a 1-0 extra-time win over Internazionale in their Coppa Italia quarter-final on Wednesday.
Milan’s third-choice goalkeeper Antonio Donnarumma, the older brother of the regular keeper Gianluigi, played a key part on his debut for the club. He had been ruled out with an injury on Wednesday morning and the second-choice Marco Storari, 40, pulled out during the warm-up.
Both teams had lost their last two Serie A games and big-spending Milan were in crisis mode after dropping to 11th in the table, 16 points behind third-placed Inter.
Milan’s head coach, Gennaro Gattuso, said the match was as important as a World Cup final after seeing his side lose three out of six games in all competitions since he replaced Vincenzo Montella.
“I knew from day one what I was going into with the Milan job,” Gattuso told Rai Sport. “It’s a big club that won for many years and changed a lot of players recently. We are struggling, but this side has quality and was at times missing that bite. We showed tonight that we can battle it out and then the quality emerges.
“Perhaps I am the worst coach in Serie A, but I always want to win, even playing in the garden with my son. I want my lads to prove that what I saw tonight was not a fluke, then we’ll take it one game at a time.”
Inter thought they had gone ahead midway through the first half when Donnarumma turned Ivan Perisic’s effort into his own goal but the referee disallowed the goal for offside after consulting the video replay system (VAR).
Inter’s captain, Mauro Icardi, set up a golden chance for João Mário on the hour but the Portugal international, who has struggled this season, saw his effort brilliantly saved by Donnarumma at point-blank range. He also made a double save from Perisic and Antonio Candreva in the 87th minute, while Milan themselves squandered a golden opportunity: Giacomo Bonaventura sending a diving header over an open goal.
Milan finally broke the deadlock in the 104th minute as Cutrone was left unmarked in the area to sweep home Suso’s cross before he was booked for taking off his shirt in what were raucous celebrations.
