(Football news) AC Milan produced a clinical performance to get a narrow 1-0 win over Fiorentina as they close in on their first scudetto since 2011. With eight minutes left on the clock, Rafael Leao latched onto a misplaced pass from Fiorentina goalkeeper Pietro Terracciano and buried a low shot to keep Milan in the hunt for their first league title in 11 years. After a goalless first half in which Milan failed to hit the target, the hosts were guilty of missing good chances to go ahead, when Leao skied his shot from close range two minutes into the second half before Theo Hernandez's half-volley also sailed over the bar
Milan found themselves in promising positions but failed to force Terracciano into any major saves and were lucky to not have seen Theo Hernandez sent off after a reckless swing of the elbow on Lucas Martinez Quarta. Fiorentina almost grabbed a shock winner in the 75th minute but Arthur Cabral's header was brilliantly saved by Mike Maignan before Leao coolly slotted the ball past Terracciano. Stefano Pioli's side have 77 points from 35 games as Inter are still 2 points away from them.
Inter maintained pace in the title race as they won 2-1 against Udinese. They started the match in dominating fashion when Croatian forward Perisic bulleted a header in the 12th minute to put them in the lead. Edin Dzeko was fouled in the penalty box in the 39th minute as Martinez stepped up to make it two from the spot, but the Argentine striker missed the penalty but scored on the rebound. Udinese came back strong in the second half and the pressure told as Ignacio Pussetto converted from close range to get them back into the match. Inter survived further pressure from the host , but ultimately held on to move on to 75 points from 35 matches played, two behind Milan after their victory over Fiorentina on Sunday.
Also read: Mainz beat champions Bayern, Dortmund lose despite Haaland’s hattrick
The other results were:
- Napoli 6 (Koulibaly, Osihmen, Lozano, Mertens x2, Rrahmani) – 1 Sassuolo (Lopez)
- Sampdoria 1 (Sabiri) – 0 Genoa
- Spezia 3 (Amian, Agudelo, Hristov) – 4 Lazio (Immobile, Provedel(og), Milinkovic Savic, Acerbi)
- Empoli 1 (Zurkowski) – 3 Torino (Belotti x3)
- Roma 0 – 0 Bologna
- Juventus 2 (Bonucci x2) – 1 Venezia (Aramu)
