MILAN: A trio of French goals helped AC Milan strengthen their place in Serie A’s Champions League positions in Sunday’s 3-1 win over feeble AS Roma.

Yacine Adli’s first Milan goal early on, an Olivier Giroud header 10 minutes after the break and Theo Hernandez’s thumping strike late on earned the points for the seven-time European champions, whose win had a distinctly French flavour at a freezing San Siro.

Milan sit nine points behind league leaders Inter Milan, and took advantage of other top four contenders dropping points to consolidate third place in Italy’s top flight.

Stefano Pioli’s side are nine points ahead of Lazio who moved up to fifth by beating Lecce 1-0 in Sunday’s early match, while fourth-placed Fiorentina are eight back after only drawing 2-2 with lowly Udinese.

A third straight league win came at the expense of a Roma side missing talisman Paulo Dybala and again lacking attacking creativity.

Jose Mourinho’s side are ninth after a largely dismal display enlivened only by Leandro Paredes’ 69th minute penalty which came completely against the run of play.

Meanwhile, Felipe Anderson crashed in the only goal of Lazio’s hard-fought win in the 58th minute at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, a fifth straight success in all competitions for Maurizio Sarri’s team.

Lazio are breathing down Fiorentina’s necks, with Bologna a further point back in sixth after losing 2-1 at Cagliari, after M’Bala Nzola saved a point for the Tuscan outfit from the penalty spot with three minutes remaining.

Before kick-off in the Italian capital Lazio paid tribute to their former manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, who on Wednesday said he had no more than a year to live after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Eriksson won the Serie A title in 2000 and the last-ever Cup Winner’s Cup the year before with a star-studded Lazio team that featured Sinisa Mihajlovic, Juan Veron, Alessandro Nesta and Marcello Salas.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2024