Ten-man AC Milan held on for a share of the spoils in an entertaining 1-1 draw away to Torino on Saturday.
Torino hosted Milan with plenty to prove having last beaten the Rossoneri in 2001.
Torino’s task looked compromised when, after just three minutes, Milan striker Jeremy Menez fired into the roof of the net from the penalty spot after being fouled in the area by Kamil Glik as he ran towards goal.
To their credit, Torino responded positively and created several scoring chances in an entertaining opening period.
The hosts went on to dominate throughout and, after Mattia De Sciglio saw red for a second bookable offence on the stroke of half-time, were repaid for their efforts when Glik headed the leveller from a corner nine minutes from time.
Milan, who are now winless in their last three outings, remained seventh and are 14 points behind leaders Juventus but only four off the third and last Champions League qualifying spot occupied by Lazio.
But the leveller meant Milan have now conceded 38 percent of their 21 goals from corner kicks, and coach Filippo Inzaghi told Sky Sport: “We have to manage things better when we’re on level terms, when we went down to 10 men we gave it everything we had.”
“I thought we had almost wrapped it up. I put on Alex because he is strong in the air and we went on to concede from a header. Again, from a corner.”
Torino’s seventh draw of the campaign kept them in 13th, a further seven points adrift.
But coach Giampiero Ventura hit out: “It was all one-sided. We conceded once from the penalty spot but created a string of chances that we should have put away.”
Milan were looking to make up for last week’s shock 2-1 defeat to Sassuolo, and with winger Alessio Cerci, a new loan signing from Atletico Madrid, on the bench as he faced his former club.
But after Menez put Milan in front from the spot to claim his ninth goal of the campaign — only two behind league leader Carlos Tevez of Juventus — they became virtual bystanders as Torino created several scoring chances that kept Diego Lopez on his toes.
Alexander Farnerud’s screamer stung the Spaniard’s gloves and after the Swede set up Fabio Quagliarella, Lopez pulled off a remarkable save with his trailing leg.
Lopez had to look alert on the half hour when Giuseppe Vives’s chip in for Darmian saw the Italy midfielder’s header come off the post.
M’Baye Niang was given a rare start on the Milan front line and a nice turn and shot from the Frenchman went just wide on 35 minutes.
Any hopes Milan had of doubling their lead were compromised several minutes into first-half injury time when De Sciglio was caught out by Darmian and pulled him back to earn a second yellow card and a sending off.
Sulley Muntari was booked seconds after the restart and was soon replaced by Andrea Poli.
Torino continued to dominate and only a deft touch from Pablo Armero stopped Josef Martinez scoring from 10 yards.
Lopez did well to react with a one-handed save minutes later when Quagliarella hit a spinning ball on the half-volley from the edge of the area.
Inzaghi sought to tighten things up at the back when Menez was replaced by Brazilian defender Alex, but minutes later Milan’s weakness at dead ball situations was sorely exposed when Glik sent a glancing header past the outstretched Lopez and inside the ‘keeper’s far post from a corner.
Remarkably, it was the defender’s fifth goal of the campaign and the eighth the Rossoneri have conceded from corners.