Giroud goal sends AC Milan to Serie A top four

Olivier Giroud ended AC Milan’s dramatic slump with the only goal in Friday’s 1-0 win over Torino which moved the champions back into the Serie A top four.

France striker Giroud claimed the points for Milan with a trademark header from Theo Hernandez’s cross midway through the second half at the San Siro, snapping a three-match losing streak in Italy’s top flight.

His seventh league goal of the campaign moved Milan up to third, 15 points behind runaway league leaders Napoli who host Cremonese on Sunday night.

Milan are two points behind second-placed local rivals Inter Milan and also have Roma, Lazio and Atalanta all with three points behind them and still to play this weekend.

The win will be a boost for Stefano Pioli’s side ahead of the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie with Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday night.

Milan came into Friday’s match having not won any of their previous seven fixtures in all competitions, a dreadful run of form which left Pioli conceding the Scudetto won on the final day of last season.

Pioli stuck with the recent change to a three-man defence trialled in last weekend’s derby defeat to Inter Milan and although the result was this time a positive one, the performance will not have Tottenham quaking in their boots.

Winger Rafael Leao was back in the starting line-up after being dropped for Milan’s most recent two losses and provided some of the cut and thrust which has made him such a star in Italy.

His burst down the left flank in the 77th minute should have led to Hernandez doubling the hosts’ lead, only for the France full-back to slash wide a dreadful first-time finish.

Veteran Zlatan Ibrahimovic was on the bench, the first time he had been picked since May last year after having the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee reconstructed.

Ibrahimovic, whose contract expires at the end of the season, returned to Milan in January 2020 eight years after leaving and his arrival kick-started their return to the top of the Italian game.

AFP

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