Noah Okafor lived up to his tag as a ‘super sub,’ scoring off the bench to rescue a point for Milan in an enthralling 3-3 draw at Sassuolo. It took the Austrian less than two minutes to get on the scoresheet as Rossoneri hauled back to a two-goal deficit to maintain their dream Serie A form.
It was Okafor’s sixth league goal of that season that helped Milan leave the Mapei Stadium undefeated. As four of his five previous strikes, it came off the bench.
“We knew it wouldn’t be easy to play here, but then we found our game. We didn’t do well in the first half. We will analyze the matches to improve,” the Milan savior said, as quoted by MilanNews.
Milan will have several days to rest and prepare for a trip to the Stadio Olimpico to face Roma in the return leg of their Europa League quarter-final tie. After a 1-0 home loss on Thursday, Stefano Pioli’s side will need to perform a comeback in Rome to reach the last four.
Okafor maintains Milan will only have victory on their minds when they touch down at the Olimpico next Thursday.
“We’re going to Rome to win. I believe 100% in my team-mates. Now we have to recover both mentally and physically,” he stated.
Since today’s draw in Emilia-Romagna probably signed Rossoneri’s unconditional surrender in the Serie A title race, overturning a slim deficit against Roma remains their best chance of avoiding another trophyless season.
Despite the deficit, no one can put it past Milan to crash Roma out of Europe and, in turn, uphold Okafor’s prediction.
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