Serie A | Milan 1-0 Bologna: Modric joy despite Allegri rage at referee

Rabiot was involved after just four minutes, running onto the Youssouf Fofana through ball and forcing Nadir Zortea to scramble across to stop him going clear on goal.

Santiago Gimenez turned between three to force a Lukasz Skorupski save, while Nicolò Cambiaghi had the ball in the net on 14 minutes only after wandering offside on the deflected Riccardo Orsolini shot.

Pervis Estupinan was also unlucky not to score when he cut inside Zortea, and the right foot curler bounced off the base of the far post.

After an aggressive start, Milan increasingly handed the initiative to Bologna for long periods of possession in that first half, making the crowd restless.

Nonetheless, the hosts did almost score on the stroke of half-time, Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s header flicking on a Modric corner for Gimenez sliding in to clip the far post.

Koni De Winter made his Milan debut for the restart, and there was controversy when Gimenez went down under a hand on the shoulder from Charalampos Lykogiannis when a long way off the ball, so the referee waved away penalty appeals.

A bigger problem for the Rossoneri was that Mike Maignan limped off moments later with a suspected calf strain, so Pietro Terracciano made his debut.

Gimenez scuffed an angled drive wide after Jhon Lucumi gave it away in midfield, but Milan finally found a breakthrough with Modric just days after his 40^th birthday.

The former Real Madrid star had begun the move from midfield, as Ruben Loftus-Cheek spread it to the right for Saelemaekers, who rolled it back across for Modric to finish with the inside of the right boot from just inside the area.

Samuele Ricci came off the bench and made an immediate impact, within minutes his scorcher from distance smacking against the base of the upright.

Ricci also sparked the move sending Gimenez through, but the first touch was poor on a Fikayo Tomori cross, allowing Skorupski to close him down.

Christian Pulisic came off the bench and had more penalty appeals, but seemed to lose his balance after cutting inside Heggem.

Incredibly, Gimenez sprung the offside trap on the Pulisic through ball, went too wide again and hit the outside of the upright from a tight angle.

Substitute Christopher Nkunku chested down the ball and was nudged from behind by Jhon Lucumi, then tried to get on the rebound and was tripped by Remo Freuler for a penalty. However, following the VAR review of only the second challenge, the referee changed his mind and decided there was no spot-kick, whereas the first Lucumi push had seemed worse. This infuriated Max Allegri, who was sent off and raged at the fourth official with his jacket off before storming down the tunnel.

Milan 1-0 Bologna

Modric 61 (M)

14-09-2025 19:45 MatchDay 3 San Siro Stadium (Stadio Giuseppe Meazza)

Milan

Bologna 1 - 0

Player statistic

1st half

Pervis Estupiñán		10'
Fikayo Tomori		18'
Alexis Saelemaekers		45+1'

2nd half

Luka Modric (Assist: Alexis Saelemaekers)

61'         73' Juan Miranda     86'

Lukasz Skorupski

Match statistic

39 Possession % 61 14 Total shots 5 3 Shots on target 0 7 Shots off target 2 4 Blocked shots 3 7 Corners 4 2 Offsides 1 17 Fouls 16 Milan Bologna

Starting lineups

16

Mike Maignan Goalkeeper 56' 23

Fikayo Tomori Defender 46

Matteo Gabbia Defender 2

Pervis Estupiñán Defender 31

Strahinja Pavlovic Defender 46'

Adrien Rabiot Midfielder 56

Alexis Saelemaekers Midfielder 14

Luka Modric Midfielder 8

Ruben Loftus-Cheek Midfielder 65' 19

Youssouf Fofana Midfielder 65' 7

Santiago Giménez Attacker 85' 1

Lukasz Skorupski Goalkeeper 22

Charalampos Lykogiannis Defender 62' 26

Jhon Lucumí Defender 20 Nadir Zortea Defender 14 Torbjørn Heggem Defender 80 Giovanni Fabbian Midfielder 63' 19 Lewis Ferguson Midfielder 8

Remo Freuler Midfielder 28

Nicolò Cambiaghi Attacker 74' 7

Riccardo Orsolini Attacker 74' 9 Santiago Castro Attacker

83'

Substitutes

33 Davide Bartesaghi Defender 24 Zachary Athekame Defender 37 Matteo Pittarella Goalkeeper 25 Cheveyo Balentien Attacker David Odogu Defender 5 Koni De Winter Defender 46' 1

Pietro Terracciano Goalkeeper 56' 4

Samuele Ricci Midfielder 65' 11

Christian Pulisic Attacker 65'

Christopher Nkunku Attacker 85' 29

Lorenzo De Silvestri Defender 13 Federico Ravaglia Goalkeeper 6

Nikola Moro Midfielder 41

Martin Vitik Defender 30 Benja Domínguez Attacker 33

Juan Miranda Defender 62' 10

Federico Bernardeschi Attacker 63' 21

Jens Odgaard Attacker 74' 11

Jonathan Rowe Midfielder 74' 24

Thijs Dallinga Attacker

83'