Despite spending heavily during the previous transfer window, the Rossoneri endured a desperately disappointing first half of the campaign which led to the dismissal of Vincenzo Montella in November.

Gennaro Gattuso has endured mixed results since taking over and it looked like being another bad day at the office when Cagliari opened the scoring after Gianluigi Donnarumma failed to keep out a tame Nicolo Barella effort.

Donnarumma made up for that misjudgement to deny Diego Farias and Kessie - one of Milan's pre-season arrivals who has struggled to hit top form - levelled proceedings from the penalty spot after Luca Ceppitelli fouled Nikola Kalinic.

Kessie completed the turnaround on the stroke of half-time, but the visitors had to see it out the hard way when Ricardo Rodriguez was dismissed for a second bookable offence 10 minutes from time.

However, Barella also saw red in the closing stages as Milan earned back-to-back wins in Serie A for the first time since September to climb from 10th to seventh in the table, but still 11 points adrift of rivals Inter, who face Roma later on Sunday, in fourth.