Serie A: Fiorentina hit back with 10 men to hold AC Milan to 1-1 draw

Image Credits: Twitter/@ACFFiorentinaEN

Fiorentina hit back with 10 men, equalising with an 85th-minute penalty, to hold AC Milan to a 1-1 draw in Serie A on Saturday after the visitors had a solo Zlatan Ibrahimovic goal disallowed by VAR.

The result left Milan coach Stefano Pioli fuming at the match officials, saying he could not understand why the referee had not reviewed the penalty incident on the pitchside monitor, and at his own team, for relaxing and letting slip the win.

Ibrahimovic thought he had given Milan the lead when he dispossessed a defender, rode another challenge and slotted the ball into the net but the Swede`s effort was chalked off after a lengthy VAR review for handball.

It did not seem to matter when Ante Rebic pounced on a mistake to put Milan ahead in the 56th minute. Fiorentina defender Martin Caceres chested down a cross in the area and left the ball for a team mate but failed to see Rebic who drilled it into the net.

The hosts were then reduced to 10 men when Dalbert fouled Ibrahimovic as he raced towards goal and was sent off after a VAR review, the referee changing a yellow card to red after deciding that Milan had been denied a clear scoring chance.

But Fiorentina equalised when Patrick Cutrone was clumsily bundled over by Alessio Romagnoli in the area and Erick Pulgar converted the penalty which the referee awarded immediately.

The draw kept Milan seventh in the table with 36 points, below Napoli on goal difference, while Fiorentina are 13th with 29.

"We could have and we should have won," said Pioli. "We were in charge of the match but we shouldn`t have thought it was all over when they went down to 10 men. The match wasn`t finished and we just needed to stay compact and balanced.

"There is regret and we are all responsible -- we should have finished off the game.

"I have no doubt about the penalty incident: there wasn`t one," he added. "I don`t understand how you can not use technology in that situation. It is difficult to accept when they don`t review an incident like that."