AC Milan flop for 125th birthday with Genoa stalemate, Fiorentina lose

MILAN: AC Milan failed to honour the 125th anniversary of the club´s foundation with Sunday´s drab goalless draw with Genoa which left the seven-time European champions way behind Serie A´s top teams.

Fiorentina also lost ground in the title race by falling to a 1-0 defeat at Bologna and missing the chance to claim a club-record ninth straight league win. In front of over 70,000 fans and a host of icons who had come to the San Siro to watch their former team and celebrate Milan´s birthday, Paulo Fonseca´s side did nothing to live up to a glorious footballing history.

Alvaro Morata came closest to scoring for Milan when he smashed a close-range finish off the crossbar with 11 minutes remaining of another uninspiring display which was met with derision from supporters and left Milan eighth on just 23 points -- eight from the Champions League positions and 14 behind league leaders Atalanta. “The players played with desire, they played like a team, the only thing that was missing was the goal,” insisted Fonseca. “We were aggressive, won the ball back high up the pitch, we had a lot of shots but just couldn´t score.”

But fans chanted “we´re not Americans” at US owners Redbird and unfurled a banner which read “we honour our heroes, symbols of a Milan which no longer exists”, hardly what the club would have been hoping for when planning the pre-match ceremony for the anniversary.

Milan wore a vintage kit for the occasion and before kick-off a host of icons paraded on the pitch carrying some of the vast number of trophies won since the club´s foundation on December 16, 1899 as Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club.

Those included Dutch trio Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard, who under Arrigo Sacchi and Fabio Capello played in one of the game´s greatest ever teams, and Andrea Pirlo who won Milan´s last Champions League in 2007.

The contrast between some of the names who came out before the match and those who actually played was stark, partly due to an injury crisis and also Fonseca´s dissatisfaction with his team.

Fonseca blasted his players after a lacklustre win over Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League and said he would select academy players if he couldn´t get the right attitude from his bigger names.

The Portuguese did just that by dropping France international Theo Hernandez for Spain under-19 international Alex Jimenez and giving 17-year-old Mattia Liberali his Serie A debut in place of injured Yunus Musah.