Goals: 50. Rafael Leão
AC Milan entered 2026 with a bang, defeating Cagliari 1-0 in the 18th round of Serie A. The only scorer in the first match of the top Italian league in the new year was Rafael Leao in the 50th minute, who thus celebrated his return after a three-game absence due to injury. Thanks to this, the Rossoneri moved to the top of the table and put pressure on their rivals in the fight for the title – Inter Milan and Napoli – ahead of the weekend program.
Title-minded AC Milan entered their first game of the new year lukewarm, putting in a lackluster first-half performance in Sardinia. However, Cagliari could also be frustrated as they failed to capitalize on a promising opportunity before the break. Right-back Marco Palestra sent his early shot harmlessly wide after breaking through the Milan defence.
Michel Adopo then had the first shot on goal of the game after half an hour, but only a weak header, and shortly afterwards Luca Mazzitelli finished wide of the near post from an acute angle. When it looked like Milan might take the lead after a penalty in the first half set-up, the verdict was overturned on review for offside earlier in the action.
As it turned out, it took only five minutes after the break for the visitors to break the deadlock. The author of the key pass was Adrien Rabiot, who sent an accurate low cross to Leao. He worked the ball at the back post and beat Elia Caprile with a fierce shot to score his sixth goal in 10 league games against Cagliari.
Massimiliano Allegri was not satisfied with the narrow lead and then sent forward Niclas Füllkrug, who made his debut in the Rossoneri shirt after arriving on loan from West Ham United.
Füllkrug didn’t get into any clear-cut scoring opportunities, but he almost capped his Serie A debut with an assist when he set up fellow substitute Christian Pulisic for a chance. However, his fierce shot ended up just wide of the post. Caprile then had to make an important save when he dived low to the left post and headed away Luka Modric’s technically played free kick.
Thanks to these late strikes from the keeper, AC Milan had to settle for a narrow victory that extended their league unbeaten run to 16 matches while also ending Cagliari’s three-match home unbeaten run.
