Chievo vs. Milan

Massimo Ambrosini was suspended with Gennaro Gattuso, Daniele Bonera, Oguchi Onyewu, Christian Abbiati and Marco Storari injured, so Nelson Dida kept the gloves despite the midweek Bernabeu howler. Chievo were a point behind Milan and had lost only one of their previous five games. Mario Yepes began a two-match ban, plus Luca Rigoni and Fabio Moro were both sidelined.

The Flying Donkeys were dominating the early phases and took a deserved lead. Mantovani got to the byline and crossed in, Pellissier's dummy let it through for Giampaolo Pinzi's strike from nine yards.

Straight after the restart a well-worked team move saw Ronaldinho thread through for Pato and Sorrentino ran out to charge him down, the ball fell to Pirlo in the D for a lob off target.

Somehow the Rossoneri failed to score at the 53rd minute. A series of shots rained in during the same move from Pato, Seedorf and Ronaldinho, but Sorrentino pushed the ball off the line when he was practically inside the goal.

Marco Borriello replaced the ineffective Huntelaar, but Chievo threatened on the counter when Pellissier pushed past Thiago Silva and Nesta waited for the right moment to tackle him in the box.

Leonardo threw on Pippo Inzaghi for Ronaldinho and Milan equalised moments later. Pirlo's free kick was charged down, but he curled it back into the six-yard box for Borriello's header onto the underside of the bar. Nesta nodded in the loose ball for a rare Serie A goal.

It proved decisive, as moments later a corner was whipped to the back post for another Nesta header It took a slight deflection to beat Sorrentino, but the Milan defender really didn't mind.