Late Modric winner keeps Milan's title dream alive
After AC Milan were seemingly heading for a draw against Pisa, Luka Modric popped up with a vital goal to keep their title hopes alive.
Luka Modric came to AC Milan's rescue as his 85th-minute winner helped Massimiliano Allegri's side to a 2-1 win over lowly Pisa despite Adrien Rabiot's late red card.
Felipe Loyola had cancelled out Ruben Loftus-Cheek's opener before Niclas Fullkrug missed a penalty, but it mattered little for the Rossoneri as Modric rolled back the years to win the match for Milan.
Filip Stojilkovic missed a golden opportunity to give Pisa the lead when he was sent through on goal, but Mike Maignan did well to rush off his line and smother the shot.
Loftus-Cheek then made the breakthrough before half-time, powering in a header from Zachary Athekame's cross to relieve Milan of some pressure ahead of the restart.
Fullkrug came on for the second 45 minutes and could have put the game to bed after Strahinja Pavlovic was fouled by Loyola in the box, but the former West Ham striker clipped the outside of the left post with his spot kick.
The visitors were left searching for a winner when the ball fell kindly to Loyola in the box before he found the bottom-right corner, but Modric played a give-and-go with Samuele Ricci before evading Simone Canestrelli's challenge to poke past Nicolas.
Rabiot, however, risked making things difficult for the visitors when he received two yellow cards in the space of 20 seconds, first for a foul on the edge of the box and the second for dissent, but Milan held on for the win that moves them five points behind Serie A leaders Inter.
Data Debrief: Modric shows age is just a number
Milan have now equalled their second-best points tally after their first 24 league matches of a season in the three-points-for-a-win era (1994-95) in Serie A, only fewer than the 61 points won in 2003-04.
And it was a deserved win in the end for the Rossoneri, who produced 2.35 expected goals (xG) to Pisa's 0.77, with both sides attempting seven shots.
And at 40 years and 157 days old, Modric is now the third-oldest player to score a goal in Serie A, after Alessandro Costacurta (41 years and 25 days) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (41 years and 166 days).
