Second-half goals from Rafael Leão and Davide Calabria helped champions Milan to fight back from two goals down and salvage a 2-2 draw at Lecce in Serie A.
Lecce shocked their more celebrated opponents when they took the lead after just three minutes, with Theo Hernandez chesting in an own goal following a defensive blunder from Pierre Kalulu.
Two minutes later the hosts could have doubled their lead when Valentin Gendrey floated a cross to an unmarked Federico Di Francesco but the winger fired wide. Lecce did make it 2-0 in the 23rd minute when Morten Hjulmand crossed for Federico Baschirotto to head home.
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“In the first half, we got everything wrong that it was possible to get wrong. We made entirely avoidable errors and it was an uphill struggle from there,” Milan coach Stefano Pioli told DAZN.
Lecce came close to scoring another goal when Gendrey latched on to a Di Francesco pass but the French defender headed wide.
Milan reduced the arrears shortly after the break when Leão picked up a rebound from Lecce goalkeeper Wladimiro Falcone to score before a well placed header from Calabria made it 2-2 in the 70th minute.
“I expected a different start to the game, considering we were coming off some disappointing results. We should’ve had the quality and sharpness to control the situation better, which is what we did in the second half,” Pioli said. “We reacted well and could’ve won it at the end, but we must do much better.”
The result left Milan second in the standings with 38 points after 18 games, one point ahead of Juventus and nine behind Napoli.
Internazionale stayed fourth in the table and drew level on with Juventus on 37 points thanks to Lautaro Martínez’s third-minute goal, which earned them with a 1-0 home victory over Verona.
Cremonese remain rooted to the bottom of the table without a win after going down 3-2 at home to Monza.
The visitors raced into a 2-0 lead inside 19 minutes through Patrick Ciurria and a Gianluca Caprari penalty and looked to have wrapped up the points when Caprari grabbed his second of the game ten minutes after half-time.
Cremonese fought back with goals from Daniel Ciofani and Cyriel Dessers but it was not enough to avoid an 11th defeat of the season.
In Ligue 1, second-placed Lens moved within three points of Paris Saint-Germain with a 1-0 home win over 10-man Auxerre thanks to Przemyslaw Frankowski’s second-half penalty. Lens have 44 points after 19 games, three behind PSG who visit fourth-placed Stade Rennais on Sunday.
The hosts were awarded a penalty in the 58th minute when Massadio Haidara was brought down by Birama Touré and Frankowski made no mistake from the spot.
Auxerre suffered another blow when were reduced to 10 players in the 64th minute after Isaak Toure picked up his second yellow.
Marseille remain two points behind Lens in third place after coming from behind to beat Lorient 3-1 at home. Terem Moffi gave Lorient the lead after 29 minutes but Sead Kolasinac levelled before the break and two goals in the space of six second-half minutes from Alexis Sánchez and Jordan Veretout earned Marseille a sixth straight win in the league.
Strasbourg got a priceless three points in their battle against relegation by beating eighth-placed Lyon 2-1. Two goals in three minutes from Jean-Eudes Aholou and Habib Diallo stunned the hosts, who couldn’t recover despite Alexandre Lacazette halving the deficit with a penalty in first-half stoppage time.
Yangel Herrera scored a late winner to seal a 2-1 home win over Sevilla and extend Girona’s impressive form in La Liga. Tanguy Nianzou had given Sevilla a 13th-minute lead but Cristhian Stuani equalised immediately after the interval and Herrera struck in the 88th minute to make it seven games without defeat in the league and lift Girona to 11th in the table.
Third-placed Real Sociedad kept up the pressure on Real Madrid with a 3-1 home victory over Athletic Bilbao. Alexander Sørloth and Takefusa Kubo put the hosts 2-0 up in the first half before Oihan Sancet pulled one back before the break. Mikel Oyarzabal sealed the victory with a 62nd-minute penalty.
Isi Palazón made amends for missing a first-half penalty as he scored the only goal of the game for Rayo Vallecano at Valladolid while Aimar Oroz hit the winner early in the second half as Osasuna beat Mallorca 1-0.
This story will be updated
