Christian Pulisic scored the only goal in Sunday’s 1-0 win over lowly Empoli to lift AC Milan into second place in Serie A, while Juventus drew 2-2 at home to Atalanta. American star Pulisic scored his eighth league goal in his first season in Italy to give Milan a win, his shot hitting the unfortunate Empoli defender Sebastiano Lu Peto. The 25-year-old has endured a difficult spell at Chelsea but has scored 10 goals in all competitions and provided a further six assists since joining Milan from London last summer.
Pulisic told DAZN: “It feels good, it’s good for us to get three points. It wasn’t a very good goal, it was a bit lucky, but in the end we got it.”
“I feel like I’m at my best and the staff here, my teammates, the city and the fans have given me a lot of confidence and trust. So I feel very, very good here.”
Stefano Pioli’s side are 16 points behind local rivals and champions Inter Milan, who beat fourth-placed Bologna on Saturday.
Milan now turn their attention to Thursday’s Europa League last-16 second leg against Slavia Prague, leading 4-2 at home.
Empoli are one point above the relegation zone but their performance suggests they should be good enough to avoid relegation under survival specialist Davide Nicola.
Juventus is in trouble again
Milan snatched second place from Juventus, who continued their poor form against sixth-placed Atalanta in Turin.
Teun Koopmeiners opened the scoring and scored as Atalanta equalized and moved four points behind Bologna for the final Champions League spot.
Quick shots from Andrea Cambiasso and Arkadiusz Milik gave the home side the lead in the 70th minute, with Juventus looking to regain second place from Milan.
Instead, Juve have won just six of their last seven games and gone from title challengers to underdogs in a matter of weeks, trailing Milan by a point.
“We played well against a good team… We got a point from Bologna and Atalanta are now 11 points behind us,” Juventus coach Massimiliano Allais Gerry said.
“Our goal is to finish in the top four. I can’t criticize the team, the atmosphere at half-time was tricky and they responded well. There was never a lack of effort.”
Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta are a point behind Roma, who held on to fifth place with a 2-2 draw with Fiorentina thanks to Diego Llorente’s late equalizer. And Fiorentina’s penalty curse continues.
Penalty pain
Goalkeeper Mile Sveral saved Cristiano Biraghi’s penalty kick in the 81st minute, and Llorente equalized in the fifth minute of stoppage time to level the score.
Roma were in fine form after beating Brighton in the Europa League on Thursday, but goals from Luca Ranieri and Rolando Mandragora put Fiorentina deservedly ahead until Llorente scored ball.
Sveral’s crucial save means Fiorentina have failed to score from the penalty spot four times this season in Serie A.
“All the players you see who miss penalties are penalty takers. We can only work on them in training and take penalties when they come on,” Fiorentina coach Vincenzo Italiano said.
“Every time we miss a penalty, we pay the price. Every time we miss a penalty, we end up dropping points. That’s something we have to change.”
Lecce lost 1-0 at home to Hellas Verona thanks to an early goal from Michael Florenso, and are tied with Empoli in 15th place on 25 points.
That wasn’t the biggest story from that game, however, as coach Roberto Daviza head-butted Verona striker Thomas Henry during a storm in southern Italy.
Davisa later admitted to Sky Sports that his behavior was “inexcusable” before claiming on Instagram that he had not headbutted Henry at all.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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