MILAN: French striker Olivier Giroud’s early strike earned AC Milan a narrow 1-0 win over Torino on Tuesday to send Stefano Pioli’s side top of the Serie A standings.

In an otherwise uneventful first half, Giroud, starting in place of another veteran Milan forward — Zlatan Ibrahimovic — tapped home his fourth Serie A goal of the season for what proved to be the winner in the 14th minute.

Torino’s Italy striker Andrea Belotti, making his first start for the club since August having recovered from injury, had the visitors’ best chance to level in the second half but missed his kick with the goal at his mercy.

Milan goalkeeper Ciprian Tatarusanu preserved his side’s lead late on with a fine save to deny Torino substitute Antonio Sanabria as the hosts opened up a three-point gap at the top of the table over Napoli, who host Bologna on Thursday.

Torino are 13th on 11 points.

“I think we played a good game,” Giroud told DAZN. “Torino are a strong team, they are aggressive in the tackle. I am very happy because we did well from the start and Torino didn’t really threaten many scoring opportunities. That means we’ve been very solid at the back and we take the three points, that’s the most important thing.”

Salernitana moved off the bottom of the table as it snatched a 2-1 win at 10-man Venezia after Ethan Ampadu’s strange sending off left the hosts down to 10 men for more than 20 minutes.

Salernitana had a man advantage from the 67th minute, with the scores level through goals from Mattia Aramu and Federico Bonazzoli. when Ampadu was shown a red card for a challenge on Franck Ribery that barely appeared to merit a booking.

Andrea Schiavone drilled home the winner in the fifth minute of stoppage time as Salernitana moved a point above Cagliari and onto level points with 18th-placed Genoa. They are a point from safety after Genoa drew 1-1 at Spezia thanks to Domenico Criscito’s 85th-minute penalty.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2021