ITALIAN SERIE A: Atalanta Maul Milan 5-0

AC Milan suffered their heaviest defeat for more than 21 years as they were thrashed 5-0 by Atalanta in Serie A.

Stefano Pioli’s side are 10th in the table and could go into Christmas in the bottom half if Sassuolo or Bologna win later on Sunday.

Alejandro Gomez scored a stunning opener, nutmegging Andrea Conti before firing home, and Atalanta’s final three goals came in the last half hour.

Mario Pasalic scored and Josip Ilicic netted twice before Luis Muriel struck.

Atalanta, who are in the Champions League knockout stages, rise to fifth in the table.

Milan had not lost by five goals in any competition since being beaten 5-0 by Roma in May 1998.

Pioli, the club’s third manager of 2019, said: “This cannot be the real Milan.

“[We] approached the match in the wrong way and you just can’t afford to do that against this team.

“Today’s performance was seriously insufficient. I expected a reaction from us in the second half but it didn’t come. In fact, we were even worse.”-BBC