European roundup: Milan go top of Serie A as Barcelona rescue late draw

Milan climbed to the top of the Serie A table with a 1-0 win over Sampdoria on Sunday, as an eighth-minute strike from the in-form Rafael Leão proved decisive at San Siro.

The Portugal forward collected a long clearance from the Milan goalkeeper, Mike Maignan, skipped past his marker and found the bottom corner from a narrow angle to score his 10th goal of the season.

The Sampdoria goalkeeper, Wladimiro Falcone, made a string of fine stops, palming over a fierce Junior Messias strike near half-time before blocking an acrobatic Olivier Giroud effort after the break. Falcone denied Giroud again from a header and also saved Ante Rebic’s shot, but the visitors could not threaten Maignan’s goal.

Milan move ahead of Internazionale and Napoli, who drew 1-1 in Naples on Saturday. Inter are one point behind with a game in hand with Napoli two points back in third place.

Danilo scored a stoppage-time equaliser to rescue a 1-1 draw for Juventus at Atalanta and earn a point that could prove crucial to his team’s top-four ambitions. The Brazilian headed in from a corner in the 92nd minute, cancelling out a long-range thunderbolt from Ruslan Malinovskyi that had put Atalanta on the verge of reclaiming fourth place. Both sides had chances in a gripping encounter, as Atalanta’s goalkeeper Marco Sportiello denied Dusan Vlahovic with a superb save and Hans Hateboer hit the bar for the hosts.

Bryan Cristante rescued a point for Roma in stoppage time in their 2-2 draw at 10-man Sassuolo. Tammy Abraham put the visitors into the lead from the spot after a Vlad Chiriches handball but Chris Smalling’s own-goal, caused by a howler from keeper Rui Patrício, levelled things up before Hamed Traoré made it 2-1 to Sassuolo, who soon went down to 10