AC Milan’s midweek loss to Juventus was firmly put behind them on Saturday as they recovered to beat Torino 2-0 and open up a four-point lead at the top of Serie A.
Rafael Leao and Franck Kessie got themselves on the scoresheet for Stefano Pioli’s side in a game that wasn’t without it’s VAR interventions.
After dominating much of the first half, Leao put the Rossoneri ahead inside 25 minutes. Former Real Madrid man Theo Hernandez played an important role, taking the ball forward with a powerful run before offloading for another player with Los Blancos ties in Brahim Diaz, and he put Leao through to open the scoring.
They didn’t have to wait as long for their second. Brahim Diaz was adjudged to have been brought down by Andrea Belotti in the area after a prolonged VAR check, and Franck Kessie stepped up to convert the subsequent penalty to double Milan’s advantage.
Milan’s lead was almost halved by one of their former players. Ricardo Rodriguez came closest to pulling one back for Torino, only for his freekick to bounce back off the crossbar and somehow not find its way into the top corner.
Sandro Tonali’s troubles at the Stadio San Siro looked to be continuing as a penalty was awarded to Torino in the second half, but another VAR intervention allowed the officials to overturn the initial decision, with replays showing that Toro’s Simone Verdi had kicked Tonali’s calf.
With the points all but sealed, arguably the highlight of the night came with five minutes left to play as Zlatan Ibrahimovic made his return after seven weeks on the sidelines, replacing Leao, and young forward Daniel Maldini joined him in coming off the bench.