AC Milan came away from the Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo with all three points on Sunday afternoon as they beat Venezia 2-0.
It didn’t take long for the first goal to come, with Christian Pulisic scoring after an assist from Youssouf Fofana. In the final few seconds, Santiago Gimenez ended his drought with a lovely lob from Tijjani Reijnders’ assist.
Milan kept a third clean sheet in four games, showing that the switch to a three-man defence does appear to have helped at the back. Below are the key stats from the game.
Big chances tell the story
The possession was exactly 50-50, which is interesting given you would expect Milan to have more against a ‘lesser’ side. The shots on target were also even at 2, while the hosts had more total shots and corners.
The key though is that the Rossoneri generated more in terms of Expected Goals and on big chances it was 2-0 in favour of Conceicao’s side, which obviously ended up being the final score.
Spread threat
Prior to today, Milan had not won two consecutive away matches in a single Serie A season without conceding a goal since March 2022.
Moreover, the Diavolo is the only Serie A team boasting at least three players with at least nine assists this season in the top five European leagues across all competitions: Youssouf Fofana (9), Christian Pulisic (9), and Rafael Leão (11).
The Pulisic and Reijnders show
Pulisic is one of only three Serie A players to have been involved in at least 50 goals (31 goals and 19 assists) over the last two seasons in all competitions, alongside Ademola Lookman (50) and Lautaro Martínez (54).
Before Pulisic and Tijjani Reijnders (both with 10 goals this season), the last time two AC Milan midfielders scored double figures in a single Serie A season was in 1972/73: Alberto Bigon (10) and Gianni Rivera (17).
The American has scored 16 goals in the 2024/25 season across all competitions, a record for the American in a single season in the top five European leagues, surpassing his 15 goals in 2023/24.
Pulisic’s goal at 4:08 against Venezia is the fastest goal scored by AC Milan in Serie A since Theo Hernández’s goal after just 1 minute and 29 seconds against the same opponents in the first leg.
All three goals scored by Santiago Giménez in this league season have come after the 75th minute.
Before Tijjani Reijnders, the last central midfielder for Milan to be involved in more than 14 goals (14 for the Dutchman, with 10 goals and four assists this season) in a single Serie A season was Franck Kessie in 2020/21 (17).
