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AC Milan were brought back down to earth after their Italian Super Cup triumph as their indifferent Serie A form continued with a 1-1 draw at home to struggling Cagliari.

Tammy Abraham scored a stoppage-time winner as Milan beat crosstown rivals Inter on Monday to land silverware but the second-half substitute missed a couple of golden opportunities late on.

Nadir Zortea’s scuffed shot past Mike Maignan cancelled out Alvaro Morata’s opener as Cagliari moved to within one point of safety, albeit having played one game more than 17th-placed Verona.

Milan largely dominated proceedings but were thwarted by several important saves by Cagliari debutant goalkeeper Elia Caprile and remain eighth in the standings, four points off sixth-placed Fiorentina.

They came into this clash having prevailed in just four of their previous 11 top-flight fixtures but comeback victories over Juventus and Inter in the Super Cup in Riyadh gave Sergio Conceicao a trophy within a week of his appointment as Paulo Fonseca’s replacement.

Milan may have fallen behind early on at San Siro but Nicolas Viola went for an audacious overhead backheel, which went over, instead of attempting to control the ball then shoot when well placed.

Milan responded well and dictated the tempo, with Christian Pulisic and Tijjani Reijnders both testing Caprile, but Conceicao’s side were vulnerable on the counter-attack.

Only Davide Calabria’s excellent last-gasp tackle prevented Viola from going clean through while Maignan produced a fabulous full-stretch diving save to claw away Mattia Felici’s curling effort.

Pulisic grazed the crossbar at the start of the second half before Milan went ahead after 51 minutes courtesy of a typical poacher’s finish from Morata.

Pulisic was able to direct a volley on target from Rafael Leao’s cross and Caprile’s save with his legs directed off the post and into the path of Morata, who stole in ahead of Jose Luis Palomino to finish.

But Cagliari were level within five minutes as Felici burst upfield before squaring to Zortea, who did not make the cleanest of connections from the edge of the area but the ball bobbled past Maignan into the net.

Pulisic had an opportunity to restore Milan’s lead but the American overbalanced as he was shooting and Caprile was able to make a comfortable save at his near post.

Abraham and Alex Jimenez were brought on just after the hour and the pair almost combined to put Milan back in front as the latter’s deflected cross was chested over by the former at the back post with the goal gaping.

If some mitigation could be afforded to Abraham because of the deflection, he passed up a gilt-edged chance soon after when put clean through as the Englishman’s tame shot was saved well by Caprile.

The Cagliari keeper had one more intervention to make, palming away Theo Hernandez’s powerfully driven free-kick deep into stoppage time, to ensure Cagliari claimed a potentially priceless point.

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