Milan back up to second after routine win
AC Milan returned to winning ways with a 2-0 victory over Benevento at San Siro that moved it back up to second place in Serie A.
The Rossoneri dropped to fifth after defeats to Sassuolo and Lazio, but battled to a much-needed win in Sunday's (AEST) clash with Filippo Inzaghi's struggling Benevento.
Hakan Calhanoglu picked out the bottom-right corner inside six minutes to give Milan the lead and Theo Hernandez added a second from close range with an hour played.
That proved enough as Milan moved a point in front of Atalanta and three ahead of Napoli and Juventus, but all three sides have a game in hand to play on Monday (AEST).
Milan has scored the most goals of any Serie A side in the opening half-hour of games this term, while Benevento has conceded the most, and this contest followed the script.
Calhanoglu exchanged passes with Franck Kessie, played the ball out to Alexis Saelemaekers and got on the end of the return pass to steer a shot past Lorenzo Montipo.
The Benevento goalkeeper did well to save a powerful strike from Rafael Leao soon after and also denied Zlatan Ibrahimovic with his outstretched leg from a one-on-one.
Ibrahimovic was thwarted again by a couple more Montipo saves early in the second half, either side of Iago Falque firing one inches wide at the other end.
However, the next Montipo save on Ibrahimovic paid dividends for Milan as attacking left-back Hernandez was in the right place to turn in the rebound.
Benevento would have moved out of the bottom three with a point, but it could not offer much in response as Milan saw out a deserved victory.
Milan has that huge showdown with soon-to-be-dethroned champion Juventus a week on Monday (AEST), while Benevento hosts Cagliari in an equally important clash the same day.
