Milan make misfiring Cagliari pay

AC Milan returned to the top of Serie A, at least for a night, thanks to an efficient 2-0 win over Cagliari at the Stadio Sant Elia. It was a one-sided game in Sardinia, although the final result told a different story with Cagliari doing all of the attacking, but Milan the ones to convert two out of just four chances. An own goal from Francesco Pisano in the fourth minute did Milan a favour before Zlatan Ibrahimovic wrapped up the win in the 60th minute of a game otherwise dominated by the home team, who could not find a goal for all their efforts. Cagliari began as they meant to go on with Thiago Ribeiro's shot hitting the outside of the post in the second minute. Milan's first attack two minutes later brought the opening goal with Robinho taking the ball past Agazzi and crossing it low into the middle, where Pisano got his foot to it just before Antonio Nocerino, sending the ball into the top corner of his own goal. It proved to be Milan's one and only attack of the first half, though, as Cagliari dominated the play, but failed to find a goal. Albin Ekdal's 30-yard shot was pushed behind by Christian Abbiati in the 14th minute, before Joaquin Larrivey's effort was saved four minutes later, albeit from an offside position. It was a similar story early in the second half with Victor Ibarbo sending a free-header straight at Abbiati. It just was not Cagliari's night, and this was typified when Ibrahimovic doubled the Rossoneri's advantage on the hour mark. The Swedish striker had only got near the ball three times during the entire first half, and each time he had committed a foul. His second and third touches of the game - the first coming minutes earlier to set up Robinho for an incredible miss after taking the ball round Agazzi - culminated in Milan's second goal. He took advantage of a huge void in the Cagliari defence, caused by an injury to Lorenzo Ariaudo, to place the ball past Agazzi. Cagliari carried on searching for an overdue goal, yet the best chance of the remaining half an hour once again fell to Milan on the counter-attack. This time Alexandre Pato and Zlatan Ibrahimovic failed to make their numerical superiority count as the former's shot was blocked.