Sporting an eye-catching pink kit, AC Milan made a similarly bright start and wasted no time in taking the game to Verona.
Not even 10 minutes were on the clock when Rafael Leao latched onto Olivier Giroud’s delicate ball, raced through on goal, and coolly slotted the hosts into the lead, leaving Verona with that familiar sinking feeling at the San Siro.
Undeterred, Verona continued to battle on and came tantalisingly close to levelling midway through the first half, but Michael Folorunsho’s bullet header was smartly stopped by Marco Sportiello.
Admittedly, that was Verona’s only real sighting of goal in the first half, but while the deficit remained at just one goal, there was certainly a chance for them to claw their way back into the game after the break.
To do so though, the Gialloblu needed to buck up their ideas in front of goal as they were desperately struggling to carve out clear-cut opportunities. With just one goal scored all season in Serie A after the hour mark, Verona’s chances of manufacturing a turnaround were dwindling by the minute.
Substitute Federico Bonazzoli did at least try his luck, but his effort was easily gobbled up by Sportiello in the Milan goal.
That gave Milan a better platform to seek a second goal which would’ve killed the game, but they themselves were suffering a similar issue, as Christian Pulisic stepped in off the right, curled an effort goalwards but again saw his strike denied by Lorenzo Montipo.
That proved not to be costly for Milan, who were relatively untroubled in holding onto a fourth win from five in league action this term - a victory that moved them level with Inter at the Serie A summit.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Tijjani Reijnders (AC Milan)
