Laxalt gives the ball away to Chibsah who tries to carry the ball forward in a last-ditch attempt to launch a Frosinone counter-attack, but the Uruguay midfielder does brilliantly to chase and win it back from him.
90'
There will be five minutes left of injury time to be played.
Kessie powers a shot on goal after receiving a loose ball, but Sportiello is equal to another Milan chance, gratefully clutching the ball at his chest.
84'
Higuain can’t get a break in front of goal, blazing his shot high and over the bar following some good play by Cutrone who headed the ball towards his path.
81'
Some good one-and-two-touch play centred around Calhanoglu and Higuain ends with the latter unable to reach the Turkey midfielder’s return pass, and a promising move ends tamely with a Frosinone clearance.
80'
D. Ciofani enters the game and replaces A. Pinamonti.
Local hero Ciofani comes on for Pinamonti in Baroni’s last throw of the dice in a match that he surely has to see as a winnable one.
79'
Laxalt makes his first contribution of the match, but is unable to gain any power or direction on his header after connecting with Kessie’s deep cross from the right-wing.
76'
B. Salamon enters the game and replaces L. Ariaudo.
Ariaudo finally comes off after struggling to shake off his knock, and Salamon comes on in his place.
74'
A. Conti enters the game and replaces D. Calabria.
D. Laxalt enters the game and replaces Samu Castillejo.
F. Zampano enters the game and replaces P. Ghiglione.
Zampano comes on for the impressive Ghiglione in Baroni’s first change of the match.
Conti also comes on for Calabria, who has had his fair share of chances in this match.
18 minutes left for Gattuso to conjure something up, and he makes a double substitution. First, Laxalt is brought on for Castillejo to provide more pace and width.
71'
GREAT SAVE BY DONNARUMMA ONCE AGAIN! Ghiglione continues his run towards the Milan goal after getting played in by Maiello and despite slipping, is able to land a shot in that forces the Milan keeper to dive low to his left and thwart the effort away for a corner! Milan are able to clear the subsequent set-piece.
Minute
Description
70'
Calabria hits one from outside the area that Sportiello has to dive low to cover after the shot was deflected by Krajnc. The set-piece is comfortably dealt with by the Frosinone keeper though.
68'
Rodriguez hits a rocket with his famed left foot from about 25 yards out, but all Sportiello can do is watch it sail far and wide of his goal.
65'
Kessie charges into the Frosinone box, but he is stopped by Krajnc near the goal-line before any further damage can be dealt! The home side holding on there!
60'
Bakayoko launches a long ball into the Frosinone box towards Castillejo, but the defence clear and regroup once again. They are allowing Milan to dictate possession like the first half, but they still carry a counter-attacking threat that the Rossoneri must stay wary of.
59'
FROSINONE NEARLY GET THE LEAD THERE! The home side venture towards the Milan final third with purpose, and Pinamonti does his absolute best to try to latch onto a Ghiglione cross towards Donnarumma’s far post but the striker is unable to get any contact on the ball!
54'
L. Crisetig gets yellow.
Crisetig commits a bad foul on Bakayoko in front of the referee, and Guida has no choice but to book the Frosinone midfielder.
53'
Cutrone does really well to cause more danger in the Frosinone area, forcing another Milan corner. Calhanoglu’s set-piece is cleared, but the Rossoneri continue to put pressure on the home defence.
50'
Beghetto ends a decent spell of Frosinone play by attempting to curl it into goal despite having better options ahead of him in the box, but the shot is tame and goes out for a Milan goal kick.
49'
Higuain goes on his own despite having Cutrone on the run ahead of him in a better position, but the Argentina striker is forced out wide by the home defence. He is able to get a cross in, but it comes to nothing and Frosinone get a goal kick.
46'
Milan get play restarted as the second half gets underway!
No changes to either side at the interval, as Frosinone look to build on their good end to the first half while Gattuso needs to emerge victorious from the Benito Stirpe to ward off more criticism.
45' +1
HALF-TIME: FROSINONE 0-0 MILAN
45'
Surprisingly enough, only one minute of added time is to be played.
43'
Castillejo is able to slot the ball towards Calabria, but the midfielder’s shot hits the side netting after getting put off by an awkward bounce before the chance!
41'
P. Ghiglione gets yellow.
Ghiglione is also booked for the foul on Calhanoglu in the build-up to the disallowed goal.
37'
G. Donnarumma gets yellow.
Donnarumma is booked by Guida in the game's first card due to some unprofessional behaviour directed towards him.
34'
Pinamonti ends some more adventurous Frosinone play with a decently timed run, but his header isn’t and the chance goes high over the bar.
31'
Pinamonti goes down after getting challenged in the air by Romagnoli. It’s thought that he would require medical treatment, but the Frosinone forward gets back up and play continues.
27'
Calhanoglu, orchestrating more Rossoneri play from midfield, slides in a great pass towards Castillejo who runs towards the six-yard area, but he is unable to get a good touch on the ball and it goes out for a goal kick.
21'
Excellent work by Bakayoko as he runs through a sea of yellow shirts towards goal, but is stopped by Goldaniga who dispossesses him before the defence clear. Bakayoko is arguing for a penalty, but the referee is having none of it.
17'
The home crowd have woken up after Chibsah’s chance, and Frosinone are now showing some endeavour after Milan’s inability to make something out of their early dominance.
16'
Frosinone break quickly into the Milan half, and a rare foray into the Rossoneri final third ends with Chibsah’s shot going high over Donnarumma’s goal.
15'
Bakayoko goes down after being pulled back by Crisetig in dangerous free-kick territory. Castillejo and Calhanoglu stand over the ball, and it’s the latter who takes it but it doesn’t threaten Sportiello, and the goalkeeper watches it go wide to his left.
12'
Another long passage of Milan play ends with a Rodriguez ball into the area looking for Higuain, but the Argentina striker is unable to get to his team-mate’s delivery and it goes out for a goal kick.
11'
Calhanoglu tries to break through on goal, but his pass towards Higuain is cut out and the home defence clear once again.
9'
Kessie is able to play it out of his box and start an extended period of Milan possession. He’s able to end the move by playing it across to Cutrone who rounds the keeper, but his touch is too much and he is forced to cut the ball back to no one in particular. Frosinone clear, but the Rossoneri get the ball back.
6'
Calabria with another decent delivery into the Frosinone box, which forces them to concede the game’s first corner. It’s played short to Castillejo who whips it in the danger area, but Sportiello is able to get down low and catch the ball.
1'
Referee Marco Guida blows his whistle, and Frosinone get us underway at the Benito Stirpe!
The hosts are out in an all-yellow number, while the visitors are sporting their iconic red-and-black.
Ghiglione, who makes his first Serie A start in this match, hits his shot with too much power and the ball goes high and wide following an early Frosinone free-kick.
Hello and welcome to our LIVE coverage of this Boxing Day Serie A encounter as Frosinone host Milan at the Benito Stirpe!
The bottom three has been familiar territory for Frosinone throughout this campaign, starting the season in 19th after an opening day 4-0 loss to Atalanta and barely moving from that position ever since. Marco Baroni’s men are on a dreadful run at the moment, having won just one of their 17 league matches so far, and not much will be expected against their opponents who have their own bad form to contend with.
An inability to convert a host of chances and a moment of brilliance by Federico Chiesa made all the difference on Saturday when Fiorentina extended Milan’s winless run to four matches heading into this fixture. However, they are only a point behind 4th-placed Lazio, and the under-fire Gennaro Gattuso will be aware of that fact as he seeks to silence the critics with a key win against a team who’ve yet to taste victory on home turf.
With 15 minutes to go before kick-off, let’s take a look at how both sides line up, starting with the hosts.
SUBSTITUTES: Antonio Donnarumma, Jose Reina, Ignazio Abate, Andrea Conti, Stefan Simic, Cristian Zapata, Alen Halilovic, Diego Laxalt, Jose Mauri, Riccardo Montolivo, Emanuele Torrasi, Frank Tsadjout.
MILAN XI (4-3-3): Gianluigi Donnarumma; Davide Calabria, Mateo Musacchio, Alessio Romagnoli (c), Ricardo Rodriguez; Franck Kessie, Tiemoue Bakayoko, Hakan Calhanoglu; Patrick Cutrone, Gonzalo Higuain, Samu Castillejo.
SUBSTITUTES: Francesco Bardi, Nicolo Brighenti, Cristian Molinaro, Bartosz Salamon, Francesco Zampano, Emmanuel Besea, Francesco Cassata, Mirko Gori, Paolo Sammarco, Danilo Soddimo, Joel Campbell, Daniel Ciofani.
The players are out and kick-off is drawing near.
FROSINONE XI (3-5-2): Marco Sportiello; Edoardo Goldaniga, Lorenzo Ariaudo, Luka Krajnc; Paolo Ghiglione, Raffaele Maiello, Raman Chibsah, Lorenzo Crisetig (c), Andrea Beghetto; Camillo Ciano, Andrea Pinamonti.
The Frosinone players follow the referee into the tunnel, doubtless arguing the decision to chalk off their opener despite subsequent replays confirming the decision to be the right one. Other than that unfortunate turn of events, the home side have ended the half growing in confidence, with Beghetto, Pinamonti and Ghiglione in particular proving to be nuisances to the Milan defence towards half-time. Despite the disallowed goal, Baroni’s men surely have the momentum heading into the second half.
Despite dominating possession, Milan have been unable to capitalise on their good start early on and allowed their less illustrious opponents to grow into the match, eventually having to rely on VAR to disallow a Frosinone goal that, on first glance, looked legitimate enough to award. Gattuso will be breathing a sigh of relief, as the under-pressure manager must win this fixture to keep his hopes of staying in the Rossoneri hotseat into the new year.
And that wraps up our coverage. We hope you enjoyed our commentary, and until next time, goodbye!
Next up for Frosinone, who remain in 19th, is a trip to face the only team below them in the league - Chievo - on Saturday. As for fifth-placed Milan, they host SPAL on the same day in a fixture that Gattuso can’t afford to emerge from without a victory.
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