Monza (Italy) (AFP) - 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.
"We had chances to add more...but given the situation we find ourselves in we need to keeping building our belief getting results," said Pioli to DAZN.
"We're in a battle for the Champions League, but if we keep clean sheets we have the quality to win games."
Saturday's win against their Lombardy rivals was Milan's third single-goal victory 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 then had to pounce to stop Brahim Diaz from scoring.
Fikayo 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.
