Football: Soccer-Late Jovic goal rescues Milan from defeat at bottom club Salernitana

SALERNO, Italy (Reuters) -Luka Jovic came off the bench to score a 90th minute goal which saw AC Milan come away from bottom club Salernitana with a 2-2 draw in Serie A on Friday.

Salernitana have nine points and remain bottom of the table, while Milan remain in third place on 33 points, four adrift of Juventus in second place who take on Frosinone on Saturday.

“It leaves you with regrets, like so many other times this season,” Milan manager Stefano Pioli told DAZN.

“The hardest part was to make the breakthrough, which we did and controlled it well. The we made mistakes that we can’t afford at this level. We were able to pull it back, but it wasn’t the result we wanted.”

Milan opened the scoring in the 17th minute when a free kick found Rafael Leao in the box who played the ball back across the goal where it was headed home by Fikayo Timori.

Salernitana equalised in the 42nd minute from a corner kick when Federico Fazio rose above Ruben Loftus-Cheek to power his header past Mike Maignan.

Maignan had only just pulled off a great save from Antonio Candreva which led to the corner, but could do nothing to keep out Fazio’s header and the sides went in level at the break.

The home side took the lead in the 63rd minute, with Antonio Candreva taking the ball to the edge of the area out wide and with Maignan expecting a cross, the shot took him by surprise and beat him at the near post.

“We shouldn’t have allowed Salernitana to take the lead and get back into the game. We still have a lot of work to do to become a great team,” Pioli said.

Salernitana came close to extending their lead just four minutes later but this time Maignan was there to tip over Pasquale Mazzocchi’s shot from outside the area.

Salernitana looked set to claim just their second win of the season but substitute Jovic’s 90th minute goal rescued Milan from defeat. The Serbian striker had replaced Ismael Bennacer in the 70th minute, Bennacer making his first start of the season.

Jovic forced keeper Benoit Costil into a double-save from close range in the 82nd minute with first a header and then a shot from the rebound, but eight minutes later he scored his third goal of the season.

Davide Calabria’s cross was headed down by Olivier Giroud and Jovic let the ball bounce before hitting a half-volley into the far corner to save Pioli’s side from an embarrassing defeat.

Fiorentina moved into fourth spot with their 1-0 win away to Monza on Friday with Lucas Beltran the scorer, they are on 30 points and move two points ahead of Bologna who host Atalanta on Saturday.

(Reporting by Trevor Stynes)