The start of the Serie A season may have been delayed
by two weeks due to a players' strike, but AC Milan
and Lazio ensured the wait was worth it by producing
an entertaining draw at the San Siro.
The defending champions had to recover from two goals
down to prevent a false start in front of their own
fans as a lively Lazio put themselves in the driving
seat thanks to two of their new signings, Miroslav Klose
and Djibril Cisse.
Zlatan Ibrahmovic and Antonio Cassano then responded
for Milan before the interval.
Neither side could keep up the furious first-half tempo
during the second 45 minutes and, although Milan carved
out the better chances, a draw was a fair result at
the end of a lively opener to the season.
It was a sign of things to come when Alberto Aquilani
broke into the Lazio penalty area after only a few minutes,
but he missed the opportunity to make a dream debut
as he shot straight at visiting goalkeeper Albano Bizzarri.
One man who did get to make his dream debut was Klose,
who took Stefano Mauri's cross down well, turning inside
Alessandro Nesta before shooting past Christian Abbiati
to open the scoring in the 12th minute.
He almost got a second five minutes later when Gennaro
Gattuso and Nesta both got in each other's way, allowing
Cisse to get in a shot which Abbiati only fumbled to
the Germany striker, but he placed the rebound wide
at full stretch.
Mauri then created the second Lazio goal in the 21st
minute with another cross from the right which this
time was met by the head of Cisse ahead of Nesta, leaving
Abbiati no chance.
Ibrahimovic pulled a goal back for Milan in the 29th
minute when he was given a simple tap-in by Cassano,
who beat the offside trap to pick up Aquilani's pass.
Milan sensed an equaliser was in the air and Kevin-Prince
Boateng's shot nearly caught out Bizzarri at his near
post in the 33rd minute.
From the resulting corner, taken by Aquilani, Cassano
headed into the far corner to bring Milan level.
Hernanes wasted the chance to restore Lazio's lead
in the 36th minute when he shot wide from seven yards,
and Cassano went even closer at the other end in the
63rd minute when he hit the outside of the left post.
A good team move by the Rossoneri a minute later culminated
in Boateng's shot being saved instinctively by Bizzarri,
and Lazio's response came within 60 seconds when Cisse
nudged the ball past Abbiati, but Nesta made up for
his errors in the first half by scrambling back to touch
the ball wide.
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