Daily Times

AC Milan joined Torino at the top of Serie A after Friday’s convincing 3-0 win over lowly Lecce built on their derby victory over Inter Milan last weekend. Goals in five first-half minutes from Alvaro Morata, Theo Hernandez and Christian Pulisic sent Milan on their to way to a third straight league win and moved them level on 11 points with Torino.

Milan also have a superior goal difference to Torino, which would have put the seven-time European champions top if they hadn’t played a game more.

Paulo Fonseca’s team, who had failed to win their first three league matches of the season, could have won by more as both Tammy Abraham and Ruben Loftus-Cheek struck the woodwork either side of half-time.

The only sour note from the night was teenage defender Davide Bartesaghi being sent off for a rash challenge with 10 minutes remaining, just five minutes after replacing Hernandez.

“That’s what makes football so great, things can change for the better or worse over 90 minutes,” said Fonseca, who had been heavily criticised after his team were given a footballing lesson by Liverpool 10 days ago.

“It was important to win ofter winning the derby… it was difficult to get our feet back on the ground but the players knew what needed to be done and won the match.”

Milan now travel to Germany to take on Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Tuesday with their tails up and key attacking players in fine form.