AC Milan were narrowly beaten by Juventus at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in their Saturday evening Serie A clash.
Alex gave Milan the lead but Juventus hit back with goals from Mario Mandzukic and Paul Pogba to earn all three points.
The Rossoneri were the first to come close to scoring, a cross from Ignazio Abate crashing into the near post; although Gianluigi Buffon appeared to have it covered. Buffon was the hero moments later when Mario Balotelli sent a powerful free kick to the bottom corner, with the follow up attempt by Luca Antonelli also kept out.
The early pressure from Milan seemed to take its toll as Alex fired the hosts into the lead, thumping the corner from Balotelli beyond Buffon. The Bianconeri responded quickly, firstly with a near post save to deny Stephan Lichtsteiner and then tipping the driving effort from Claudio Marchisio onto the crossbar.
The lead seemed precarious for the home side, and it proved to be as Mario Mandzukic leveled the score with a clever shot into the ground. In the second half Balotelli looked to have put the hosts back in front again, but the referee spotted the Italian using his hand to force the ball over the line.
Paul Pogba had been having a relatively quiet game, but the Frenchman nearly put the visitors in front when his free kick crashed into the post.
However, the midfielder made no mistake moments later when he took a touch from a corner, smashing his shot into the ground and over the scrambling Donnarumma. Substitute midfielder Kevin Prince-Boateng sliced one final opportunity wide, and despite a late surge it was all too little too late for Sinisa Mihajlovic and his players.
The win sends Juve nine points clear at the top having player a game more than Napoli while Milan are sixth and one point above Sassuolo.
