Soccer Football - Serie A - Fiorentina v AC Milan - Stadio Artemio Franchi, Florence, Italy - January 11, 2026 AC Milan's Christopher Nkunku in action with Fiorentina's Niccolo Fortini REUTERS/Daniele Mascolo
FLORENCE, Italy, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Christopher Nkunku scored in the 90th minute to earn AC Milan a 1-1 draw at Fiorentina on Sunday but, despite extending their unbeaten league run, the visitors continue to lose ground in the Serie A title race with their second stalemate in four days.
Milan remain second on 40 points, two behind Inter Milan who could increase their lead when they host champions Napoli later on Sunday, while Fiorentina are third from bottom on 14 points.
"I'm not thinking about it (Inter v Napoli) at all," Milan manager Massimiliano Allegri told DAZN.
"We have to think about ourselves, we have to return to winning ways, there are a lot of points still to play for."
Milan's only league loss this season came on the opening day and after struggling once more against a relegation-battling side -- they also came from behind in Thursday's 1-1 draw with Genoa -- have now gone 18 matches without defeat.
Fiorentina spent the early stages on the attack without really troubling the visitors before a quick counter almost let Milan in, with keeper David de Gea coming out to deny Christian Pulisic.
Allegri left Luka Modric, Rafael Leao and Adrien Rabiot on the bench, giving Niclas Fullkrug and Ardon Jashari their first league starts, with Fullkrug and Pulisic looking very comfortable together up front.
The pair played a neat one-two which launched Pulisic through on goal once more, this time going around De Gea but taking the ball too far wide and his finish ended up in the side netting.
The duo combined again, Fullkrug biding his time before finding Pulisic with a backheeled flick and the American hit his shot straight at the keeper.
Milan were now finding it easy to open up the home defence but without getting the end product and the opening half ended goalless.
"We played a good first half, we had chances to score but didn't take them," Allegri said.
"In the second half Fiorentina pushed a bit more."
FIORENTINA TAKE DESERVED LEAD
Fiorentina began brightly after the break, Dodo's deflected shot looping over the bar and Mike Maignan gathering Robin Gosens's header from the resulting corner.
Allegri made three changes on the hour mark, sending on Leao and Rabiot, along with Davide Bartesaghi, but Fiorentina continued to look the better team in the second half.
Fiorentina hit the front in the 66th minute from a corner, Pietro Comuzzo rising unchallenged and his glancing header finding the net off the far post.
The hosts had failed to register a win in their opening 15 league games but had shown signs of recovery of late and came close to a third successive home win.
Substitute Nkunku timed his run to get on the end of Youssouf Fofana's ball and fired past De Gea from a wide angle.
Fiorentina still had time to find a winner, but Marco Brescianini smashed his shot off the crossbar from the edge of the six-yard area as Milan survived more late drama.
(Reporting by Trevor StynesEditing by Christian Radnedge and Clare Fallon)
