AC Milan ascended into second place in the Serie A standings following a 2-1 victory at 10-man Napoli.
Rossoneri climb into second after Napoli triumph
AC Milan ascended into second place in the Serie A standings following a 2-1 victory at 10-man Napoli on Monday evening.
The visitors opened the scoring courtesy of Robinho midway through the first half before Michele Pazienza received a red card on the stroke of half-time after collecting a second yellow.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic doubled the Rossoneri's advantage in the 71st minute before Ezequiel Lavezzi pulled one back for the home side seven minutes later.
However, the visitors were able to cling on to their lead for a fourth-straight league win to boost them above fierce local rivals and defending champions Inter Milan in the table.
Lively
The visitors had a lively start and Robinho was first to test Napoli goalkeeper Morgan De Sanctis with a left-footed strike from outside the area which the keeper saved.
Then midway through the first half, Robinho put the visitors in front.
The Brazilian played a one-two with Massimo Oddo before firing past De Sanctis from the centre of the area.
Napoli replied with Edison Cavani's shot from the six-yard box going just wide before Lavezzi's cross found Marek Hamsik and his effort went over the bar.
But their cause was dealt a major blow when Pazienza was given his second yellow card after a foolish handball.
Moments before half-time, Milan goalkeeper Christian Abbiati made a great save, palming Lavezzi's powerful header over the bar.
And Napoli kept the pressure on after the restart and should have restored parity when Lavezzi got on the end of Andrea Dossena's cross but he struck the ball wide of the target.
On the hour mark Abbiati did well to save Hamsik's right-footed strike from seven yards but, just when Napoli looked at their most dangerous, Milan doubled their lead.
Oddo provided the cross from the right and Ibrahimovic headed past De Sanctis.
Reward
Napoli continued to push forward and were rewarded when Lavezzi struck from the right side of the six-yard box to beat Abbiati.
With seven minutes remaining, Walter Gargano missed a great chance to pull his team level by firing wide.
Milan almost grabbed a third but De Sanctis did well to deny Robinho and substitute Mathieu Flamini in the dying seconds of the game.
