Brahim Diaz’s first goal since October gave Milan a 1-0 victory over Tottenham in the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie.
Diaz had gone 12 games without a goal for the Serie A champions but stunned Spurs with an early header on Tuesday.
Tottenham saw plenty of the ball but were unable to come up with an equaliser on former Inter boss Antonio Conte’s return to San Siro.
Milan had been without a win in seven matches before beating Torino last Friday, but Diaz gave them back-to-back victories and a slender advantage to take into the second leg at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on March 8.
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San Siro erupted when Diaz opened the scoring in the seventh minute, diving to nod in on the goal-line after Fraser Forster produced a brilliant double save to deny the Spaniard and Theo Hernandez.
Spurs responded well to that early blow, though did not create a clear-cut opportunity until Harry Kane rattled the crossbar just before the break, but an offside flag against Son Heung-Min meant the striker’s effort would not have counted if it had found the back of the net.
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There was concern for Milan when goalkeeper Ciprian Tatarusanu appeared to go over on his ankle before Eric Dier was shown a yellow card that will rule him out of the second leg.
Conte introduced Richarlison with 20 minutes to go before Charles De Ketelaere and Malick Thiaw wasted glorious chances to extend Milan’s lead with headers from close range.
Tottenham applied some late pressure, but lacked the quality to salvage a draw and have work to do next month.
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