Serie A: Giroud and Hernandez miss two penalties, AC Milan settles for a draw against Bologna

AC Milan was held in check by Bologna (2-2) on Saturday during a match on the 22nd day of the Italian Championship during which Olivier Giroud and Théo Hernandez each missed a penalty.

Bologna opened the scoring with their Dutch striker Joshua Zirkzee, forgotten at the far post by the Milan defense and who slipped the ball between the legs of Mike Maignan (29th). AC Milan had the opportunity to equalize at the end of the first period with a penalty whistled for a kick in the face of Simon Kjaer, with his back to goal. Bologna coach Thiago Motta was immediately sent off for having very virulently expressed his dissatisfaction to the fourth referee.

But Giroud hit his penalty too weakly, which was easily saved by Lukasz Skorupski (40th). The Polish goalkeeper from Bologna, however, was unable to do anything when Ruben Loftus-Cheek appeared alone in front of him in the 45th minute. Transparent until then, Milan's Portuguese international Rafael Leao revived his team with a raid of more than 60 m, before being stopped in the penalty area by a blow to the face.

Giroud replaced shortly before, it was his teammate in the French team Théo Hernandez who saw his penalty push the right post of Skorupski (74th). AC Milan took the lead for the first time thanks to Loftus-Cheek (83rd), before Bologna equalized on a penalty in added time by Riccardo Orsolini.

AC Milan, which remained on four consecutive victories, remains 3rd with 46 points, far behind Juventus (53 pts) and Inter (51 pts). The two teams stopped playing briefly in the 16th minute, in reference to the jersey number of French AC Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan, targeted by racist insults last weekend in Udine.