Keeper heads 95th minute equaliser against AC Milan
4 Dec 2017 5:07 PM GMT
Benevento goalkeeper Alberto Brignoli scored an injury-time equaliser against AC Milan to earn his team the first Serie A point in their history.
The keeper, on loan from Juventus, headed in Danilo Cataldi's free-kick to end a record-breaking run of 14 defeats.
Milan led through Giacomo Bonaventura before George Puscas equalised.
Nikola Kalinic headed Milan ahead again and they had Alessio Romagnoli sent off before Brignoli's late leveller.
"I'm not just happy for me but for everyone," Brignoli said. "We've lost so many games undeservedly with goals in the 90th minute but now it's our turn to celebrate.
"It's a dream to be in Serie A although we hoped that it would have turned out better than this. There was nothing to lose. I just closed my eyes and jumped. It was a goalkeeper's goal, not a forward's goal."
Milan, who drop to eight, sacked manager Vincenzo Montella earlier this week and replaced him with youth-team boss Gennaro Gattuso.
"It hurts. A knife wound would have been less painful than that goal. I would never have expected to concede a goal in the last minute with the opposition goalkeeper scoring," the new manager said.
Serie A debutants Benevento - who were in the third tier in 2015-16 - had lost more games at the start of a season than any team in history from Europe's top five leagues.
Brignoli is the first goalkeeper to score in Serie A since Massimo Taibi for Reggina against Udinese in 2001.
The 26-year-old goalkeeper has had a fairly unremarkable career. He is on loan from Juventus, though he has never played for the champions. Since joining them in 2015, he has had loan spells with Ternana, Sampdoria, Leganes and Perugia before joining Benevento this summer.
Before joining Juve, he had played for lower league clubs Montichiari, Lumezzane and Ternana.
Against Milan, he was playing in Serie A for only the ninth time - having started once for Sampdoria in 2015-16 and the past eight games for Benevento. He played once in La Liga, for Leganes against Espanyol in 2015-16 - the season his current club were in the Lega Pro Prima Divisione.
"Brignoli has been criticised for some mistakes," said Benevento coach Roberto de Zerbi. "If you believe until the very end, luck does not always turn its back on you."
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