Ronaldinho double lifts Milan as Sampdoria lose ground

Ronaldinho inspired 10-man AC Milan to only their third win of the season with a come-from-behind 2-1 success against AS Roma at the San Siro on Sunday.

While the first half in Milan belonged to Roma's French winger Jeremy Menez, it was Ronaldinho who starred after the break, scoring one and creating the other -- and quite possibly saving countryman Leonardo's job as coach -- before captain Massimo Ambrosini was sent off late on.

"The most important thing was the incredible spirit we should," said Leonardo. "The three points are all well and good but the main thing is the desire we've shown in all our performances."


The result moved Milan up to eighth in the Serie A table with Roma dropping to 11th.

Roma, and Menez in particular, tore Milan apart in the first half.

But it was with a helping hand from Milan centre-back Thiago Silva that the visitors went in front as Menez pounced on his fluffed back pass on three minutes and shrugged off the Brazilian's shirt pulling before beating goalkeeper Dida.

A minute later Menez surged into the box again but this time his angle was more difficult and he shot straight at Dida.

On 20 minutes he was in behind the defence a third time, however under pressure from Silva he shot wide as he fell.

Moments later Daniele De Rossi drove forward unchallenged from midfield and brought a fine one-handed stop out of Dida.

Menez burst into life again on 38 minutes as he teed up Mirko Vucinic, whose first touch was sublime to take him past Alessandro Nesta but he then hesitated and Dida blocked his weak shot.

Finally Milan created something on the counter-attack a minute later and Roma goalkeeper Doni had to tip a shot from Clarence Seedorf onto the post after the Dutchman benefited from a fortunate ricochet in the box.

Leonardo had to react and he did by bringing on evergreen striker Filippo Inzaghi for midfielder Ignazio Abate and within two minutes Inzaghi's header from an Andrea Pirlo corner had been cleared off the line by David Pizarro.

Milan needed a helping hand to get back into the match and they got it with a highly contentious penalty award after Nesta crumbled under Nicolas Burdisso's challenge in the box.

Ronaldinho despatched the penalty on 56 minutes and the winner came from a moment of quality on 67 minutes as Ronaldinho's long diagonal ball found Pato, whose control on his chest was sublime and took John Arne Riise out of play before he rounded Doni and slotted home.

Roma coach Claudio Ranieri was unhappy about the penalty but blamed his players for the defeat.

"Everything was shameful. We should have finished the match in the first half," he said.

"I wish it really was a penalty because there were one or two for us in the first half. I don't think the Ambrosini's sending off was right either."

Meanwhile, Sampdoria lost ground on Inter Milan at the top when they were held to a 1-1 draw at Lazio, in a game where both teams finished with 10 men.

Champions Inter lead Sampdoria by two points having humbled Genoa 5-0 on Saturday while Juventus and Fiorentina, who drew 1-1 in Turin, are a further two points behind.

Sampdoria needed a win to join Inter on 19 points at the top but despite taking the lead through Giampaolo Pazzini, they were pegged back by a goal from Francesco Matuzalem.

But Sampdoria coach Luigi Delneri was furious that two penalty appeals in the last five minutes were turned down, the first when Fernando Muslera came out and punched Pazzini in the head after the striker beat him to the ball and the second when Mobido Diakite barged Reto Ziegler.

Pazzini was taken to hospital and onfield TV pictures seemed to show he had a broken nose.

"The only one not to see the penalty on Pazzini was the referee," fumed Delneri. "Pazzini took a hell of a knock and to make matters worse he could be out for a month."