Franck Kessie and Alexis Saelemaekers scored early goals as Milan dominated Salernitana, but sustained yet another injury.
The Rossoneri closed the gap on leaders Napoli to one point, but lost Simon Kjaer for the rest of the season following knee surgery. With Olivier Giroud, Ante Rebic, Samu Castillejo and Davide Calabria still out, Zlatan Ibrahimovic was rested so Pietro Pellegri got his first start. Alessio Romagnoli returned from suspension to bolster the defence. Salernitana had Franck Ribery back, but Strandberg, Riccardo Gagliolo and Mamadou Coulibaly out of action.
It was the perfect start for Milan, as in the opening five minutes Rafael Leao dribbled past two down the left and pulled back from the by-line for Franck Kessie to sweep home from eight yards.
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Brahim Diaz came sliding in to reach a Tiemoue Bakayoko ball across the face of goal and clipped the outside of the upright.
However, Pellegri pulled up with an injury just 15 minutes into his first start and was replaced by Rade Krunic, moving Leao to centre-forward.
The second goal arrived moments later, Brahim Diaz setting up Alexis Saelemaekers for a ferocious left-foot strike into the far top corner. He ran to the touchline and held up Simon Kjaer’s jersey to the crowd during his celebration.
Leao swerved to get away from three defenders in one move and saw his shot deflected wide, while Vid Belec flew to palm a Rade Krunic strike over the bar and Kessie drilled just off target.
Junior Messias came on at half-time and immediately his back-heel flick sent Alessandro Florenzi clear to flash a ball across the face of goal, Kessie a second too late for the tap-in.
Belec kept the scoreline down with a save on the Messias curler and Brahim Diaz side-footed inches wide from a Saelemaekers set-up which he really should’ve scored.
Sandro Tonali’s daisy-cutter scraped a coat of paint off the base of the far post from the edge of the box, but despite their absolute domination, the result remained 2-0.
Milan 2-0 Salernitana
Kessie 5 (M), Saelemaekers 18 (M)