MILAN: A second-half screamer from Manuel Locatelli gave AC Milan a 1-0 win over Juventus after the Serie A titleholders had a goal controversially disallowed on Saturday.

Locatelli’s powerful, rising shot from the right edge of the area bounced in off the underside of the crossbar, and stranded Gianluigi Buffon.

“I still don’t believe it, scoring against the best goalkeeper in the world is incredible ... I’ll probably shed some tears later when I see my family,” Locatelli said.

Juve thought they had gone ahead in the first half from Miralem Pjanic’s free kick but the goal was ruled out for offside after a two-minute consultation between match officials at the San Siro.

“It’s clear that the goal was good, everyone else is saying that, not just me,” said Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri. “The Milan protests made the referee doubt his decision, but we as teams should think about playing.”

It was Milan’s first win over Juventus for nearly four years and ended a run of nine successive defeats against the Turin side.

Juve stayed top with 21 points from nine games but Milan closed the gap to two points.

On Sunday, Napoli — despite having forward Manolo Gabbiadini sent off after half an hour — added to the woes of basement side Crotone with a 2-1 win that lifted them to 17 points.

Elsewhere, Nikola Kalinic struck a hat-trick and Federico Bernardeschi hit a brace as Fiorentina’s stuttering season finally took flight with a classy 5-3 win at Cagliari.

Mauricio Pinilla converted a late penalty to give Atalanta a 2-1 win over Inter Milan and condemn their troubled opponents to 14th in the table, 10 points off the lead.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2016