Viola share spoils with Milan

Delio Rossi picked up his first point as coach of Fiorentina with a 0-0 draw with AC Milan in his debut on the Viola bench. In a game bereft of chances, the closest either side came to scoring was when Milan sub Alexandre Pato hit the post in the 77th minute. The visitors enjoyed the better of the first half with Fiorentina coming out of their shells in the second half, although they were unable to pose a threat to the Milan goal as they seemed happy enough to take a point off the defending Serie A champions. The Rossoneri were unable to find a way through and had to settle for a goalless draw, although Clarence Seedorf did find a way beyond the Fiorentina defence in the 19th minute only to see his ruled out for offside. Alberto Aquilani sent a header onto the roof of the net after half an hour as Milan searched for a goal against a very reticent Viola. The home side only broke out of defence once in the first half with Alberto Gilardino volleying over the crossbar from just outside the penalty area in the 40th minute. It was slightly different in the second 45 minutes, though, with Fiorentina taking a few more risks. Manuel Pasqual's shot from over 30 yards in the 73rd minute only just missed Christian Abbiati's post, but the biggest chance of the game fell at the other end shortly afterwards when Pato's shot hit the inside of the left-hand post and rolled along the goal-line. Zlatan Ibrahimovic recovered the loose ball to the right of the goal and sent it back into the centre, where Urby Emanuelson shot straight at Artur Boruc from point-blank range. In the last minute, Pato had another chance to score when Zlatan Ibrahimovic headed the ball over the Fiorentina defence, but the Milan striker, returning after injury, seemed to lack conviction and this enabled Boruc to close him down and make the block, saving his side a precious point.