AC Milan hold off Atalanta fightback to edge 5-goal thriller

AC Milan held off a fightback from Atalanta to close out a 3-2 win at San Siro and move up into fourth in Serie A.

The Rossoneri, who had won 4-0 away at RB Salzburg in the Europa League on Thursday night, took the lead through Goncalo Ramos’ penalty, with Adrien Rabiot slotting in a second just before the break.

Ramos then saw another spot-kick saved, but Mario Gila made it 3-0 on the hour, before Atalanta fought back with goals from Gianluca Gaetano and Nikola Krstovic, however, they could not find an equaliser.

Christian Pulisic saw his early goal from close range ruled out for a tight offside call following a VAR check.

Milan then did get themselves in front after 24 minutes.

Atalanta substitute Relja Obric, who had not long been sent on for his league debut to replace injured defender Sead Kolasinac, turned to block Yunus Musah’s shot, but the ball struck his outstretched hand.

After reviewing the incident on the pitchside monitor, the referee awarded a penalty, which Ramos coolly dispatched by sending Atalanta goalkeeper Marco Carnesecchi the wrong way.

Milan doubled their lead just before half-time when Diego Moreira found Rabiot at the edge of the area and he cut inside before drilling a low shot back into the bottom corner.

The home side were awarded another penalty in the 56th minute following a VAR review after a handball by Thomas Kristensen from Rabiot’s volley. Carnesecchi, though, this time guessed right to parry Ramos’ spot-kick.

From the resulting corner, Gila headed in at the back post off Rabiot’s flick-on to seemingly put the result beyond doubt.

Atalanta, though, rallied after substitute Gaetano showed neat control in the six-yard box to pull a goal back in the 66th minute and then Krstovic further reduced the deficit after a swift counterattack with nine minutes left, but Ruben Amorim’s side dug in to see out the closing stages.