Milan head coach Vincenzo Montella has dedicated his side’s Serie A win against Fiorentina to club president Silvio Berlusconi.
Berlusconi attended the game at the San Siro stadium amid reports the club is set to be sold to a Chinese consortium.
The former Italian prime minister watched the Rossoneri secure a vital victory in their push for European football, with on-loan Everton winger Gerard Deulofeu scoring his first goal for the club in a 2-1 win.
Montella told Milan’s official website: “The team, the staff and I want to dedicate this win to president Silvio Berlusconi. We don’t know if this was his last game at San Siro, but we really want to dedicate it to him.”
Montella knew the importance of the result, which moves his side four points above Fiorentina and within four points of the top five.
“It’s a very important win,” the Milan boss added.
“Thanks to these three points we continue our race for the Europa League – our objective – and we lead in the head-to-head against our direct rivals Fiorentina and Lazio.
“We were aggressive and created many chances. We could have scored more in the first half.
“In the second 45 the game changed. We didn’t manage to press high up the pitch and I decided to bring on a defender. Playing this way, Fiorentina didn’t shoot once.”
Deulofeu – who joined in January – put Milan back in the lead with his 31st-minute goal after Juraj Kucka’s opener had been cancelled out by Nikola Kalinic.
The former Barcelona winger told his new club’s website: “I’m really happy. It was a hard game, which we managed to win with the goals in the first half.”
Fiorentina boss Paulo Sousa felt his side deserved something from the game.
The Viola had come into the game on the back of an impressive 1-0 win away to Borussia Moenchen-gladbach in the Europa League on Thursday.
Sousa told Mediaset Premium: “We were superior to Milan, playing away from home against a side in good shape that is also strong mentally, after our very tough Europa League match on Thursday night.
“The team pushed, ran, created and we were also unlucky. At one point Milan moved to three centre-backs and five defenders.
“We had so many chances, but lacked the goal.”