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Despite dominating Bologna at the San Siro, Milan went down 1-0 for their second consecutive defeat to leave them eight points behind Juventus at the top of the table.

Paolo Maldini returned to the centre of defence in place of the suspended Alessandro Nesta while Serginho came in at left-back, but with a license to push forward at every occasion. An early cross from the Brazilian was headed wide by the diving Andriy Shevchenko. The Ukrainian then just failed to make a clean connection with a through-ball from Vikash Dhorasoo as Milan dominated possession. Dhorasoo thought he had given the Rossoneri the lead when he hit a stunning volley from 25 metres, but the referee indicated that the Frenchman had pushed Thomas Locatelli in the build-up. Bologna had come to play on the counter-attack and on 27 minutes they broke quickly from midfield as Locatelli combined with Theodoros Zagorakis, whose neat back-heel on the edge of the area allowed the midfielder to fire home a low shot. It was the Rossoblu’s first chance of the game and there was more bad news for Milan when Shevchenko limped off after connecting with Alessandro Gamberini’s foot as the pair challenged for a dropping ball. The incident happened inside the area and the referee awarded an indirect free-kick, which Serginho sent over the bar. Sheva was unfit to continue so Jon Dahl Tomasson came on to join Hernan Crespo in attack and the Dane came close with a glancing header.

The Rossoneri continued to lay siege to the visitor’s goal in the second half, Crespo turned on the ground but fired straight at goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca, while Marcos Cafu saw a shot deflected across the face of the goal. Coach Carlo Ancelotti sent on Massimo Ambrosini for Rino Gattuso on 62 minutes and the substitute almost grabbed the equaliser, but his header from a Andrea Pirlo free-kick was cleared off the line by Zagorakis. In the dying moments, with every Milan player encamped in the Bologna half, Tomasson almost reached a loose ball in the area, but the danger was cleared.

MILAN: Dida; Cafu, Stam, Maldini, Serginho; Gattuso (Ambrosini, 62'), Pirlo, Dhorasoo; Kaka (Rui Costa, 70'); Shevchenko (Tomasson, 42'), Crespo.

BOLOGNA: Pagliuca; Juarez, Gamberini, Torrisi, Nastase; Zagorakis, Colucci, Amoroso (Giunti, 77'), Sussi; Locatelli (Loviso, 90'), Bellucci (Ferrante, 93').

GOAL: 0-1, Locatelli (27')

Source: acmilan.com