UPDATE: Messias fires AC Milan past Monza to third place in Serie A

Junior Messias made sure AC Milan continued their recovery from an awful start to the year by netting the only goal in Saturday’s 1-0 at Monza which moved the champions up to third in Serie A.

Milan’s season is creaking back into gear and Brazilian Messias lashed in a powerful strike from the edge of the area in the 31st minute to claim the points at the U-Power Stadium.

A third league win since the new year has Stefano Pioli’s side level on 44 points with local rivals Inter Milan, who sit second and face off-form Udinese in Saturday’s late match.

Both Milan giants are a whopping 18 points behind rampant league leaders Napoli after their 2-0 win at Sassuolo on Friday.

Saturday’s win against their Lombardy rivals was Milan’s third in a row in all competitions and came after Tuesday’s 1-0 Champions League win over Tottenham Hotspur.

Monza, whose unbeaten record ends at eight matches, dropped down a place to 11th thanks also to Bologna’s late 2-1 win at struggling Sampdoria earlier on Saturday.

Milan were still not back to their very best but could have easily won by more, Michele Di Gregorio having to make a series of saves before Messias crashed home his third league goal of the season.

Rafael Leao clipped a speculative effort off the post in the 19th minute and six minutes later his weak finish at the end of a counter-attack was pushed out by Di Gregorio, who than had to pounce to stop Brahim Diaz from scoring on the round.

Tomori forced another good save from Di Gregorio with a snap shot just before the half-hour mark, but the best chance of the lot was wasted by Theo Hernandez in the 56th minute.

The France left-back was sent charging through by Leao but misdirected his chipped finish into the side netting.

Milan then had to weather a late Monza storm as Patrick Ciurria struck a low shot off the post before Di Gregorio kept out Sandro Tonali and Matteo Pessina denied struggling summer signing Charles De Ketelaere.

AFP