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AC Milan battles back to beat Parma 2-1
Kaka and Andrea Pirlo both scored in the last eight minutes to rally AC Milan to a 2-1 victory at rainy Parma on Saturday and move it within a point of Serie A leader Juventus. Kaka's equalizer in the 82nd came off a corner kick that Jon Dahl Tomasson flicked on with a header at the near post. Pirlo's winner in the 89th resulted from a desperate push forward, his shot from near the penalty spot finding its way through a large crowd of players. In the night match, Adriano scored a hat trick in the first half of Inter Milan's 5-0 win against Messina, moving the Brazilian's club into fourth place. With 31 points, Milan placed pressure on Juventus before its game against Lazio on Sunday. The loss left Parma in 18th place with only one victory in its last seven matches, five points ahead of last-placed Atalanta. ``These are three very important points, obtained like that at the end,'' Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti said. Alberto Gilardino gave Parma the lead in the 67th, beating defender Giuseppe Pancaro to the ball and scoring his seventh goal of the season against the club he is rumored to be heading to at the end of the season. Gilardino, considered the centerpiece for Italy's national team future, converted a header off a long free kick from near the sideline. ``After Gilardino scored we played with more venom, maybe less polished but more determined,'' Ancelotti said. ``Up until their goal we had controlled the game well, we were always looking to get play wide. The players did well in the second half to close out the game.'' Milan dominated the first half, evidenced by Andriy Shevchenko's blast from just inside the area that hit the post 13 minutes in and a Clarence Seedorf goal negated because of a Hernan Crespo foul in the 26th. Seedorf and Kaka missed consecutive chances in the 34th, with Parma goalkeeper Sebastien thwarting Seedorf's shot and Kaka sending the rebound wide. Parma's best first-half attempt was a long shot by Andrea Pisanu in the 36th that went just wide. Tomasson nearly made it 3-1 with a shot that hit the post in injury time. ``We created a lot in the first half, we just couldn't find the goal. At the end, we deserved to win,'' Pirlo said. At San Siro, Inter gained a much needed win in a season marked by an abundance of draws _ 11 in 14 matches. Taking control of the league scoring lead, Adriano found the net in the third, 14th and 36th minutes. His second goal, a long shot that worked its way past several defenders, was the most exciting. The other two came from close range. With 13 goals in 14 matches, Adriano moved two ahead of AS Roma's Vincenzo Montella on the league scoring chart. Inter was reduced to 10 men when goalkeeper Francesco Toldo was ejected for a hard, last-man, foul on Japanese striker Atsushi Yanagisawa just outside the area in the 48th. Messina's Greek 'keeper Dimitris Eleftheropoulos capped a nightmarish night when he was credited with an own-goal in the 55th. A free kick by Inter defender Sinisa Mihajlovic bounced off the post and then ricocheted in the net off Eleftheropoulos' back. Nicola Amoruso thought he had scored for Messina in the 75th, but referee Pierluigi Collina ruled that two players entered the area while he was taking a penalty kick. His second attempt, to the same spot, was blocked by Inter's reserve 'keeper, Uruguayan Fabian Carini. Christian Vieri scored Inter's fifth goal in the 84th, outmuscling a defender who resorted to tugging at his jersey. Messina was left tied for sixth with fellow Sicilian club Palermo, 14 points behind Juventus. Messina entered the match one point ahead of Inter and with big hopes courtesy of its upset victory against Milan at San Siro earlier in the season. |
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