Pulisic strikes, Giroud saves as Milan move top with late drama at Genoa

 MILAN: Christian Pulisic fired AC Milan top of Serie A on Saturday after a 1-0 win at Genoa decided in a wild final few minutes in which Olivier Giroud slipped on his goalkeeping gloves and saved the day.

Little had happened at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris until Pulisic struck with three minutes remaining, spinning and slamming home the controversial winning goal which was only given after a long VAR check for a possible handball.

The decision to give that goal would eventually lead to a livid Genoa president Alberto Zangrillo alluding to a conspiracy in which the “usual suspects always come out on top.”

Pulisic’s fourth Milan goal moved his team two points ahead of Inter thanks to a fourth straight win since last month’s five-goal humiliation suffered at the hands of their local rivals, who could only draw 2-2 with Bologna.

His strike also sent the match spiralling into chaos as the home side tried to scramble a point, Mike Maignan shown a straight red card in the seventh minute of stoppage time for charging out of his goal and clattering into Caleb Ekuban.

Coach Stefano Pioli had made his fifth substitute moments before so Giroud, who had been brought on in the 66th minute to score a winner, was then tasked with stopping Genoa and immediately watched on helpless as Albert Gudmundsson clipped a free-kick onto the crossbar.

“Pulisic wanted to go in goal but we told him he was too short, so Oli got picked to go in,” said Pioli to Sky Sport.

With the home crowd baying for blood Genoa’s goalkeeper Josep Martinez came up for the subsequent corner but ending up being sent off himself for a second bookable offense.

And Giroud capped an incredible evening by rushing out of his goal to twice to deny Genoa and ensure Milan