Milan can get better, Allegri warns rivals

AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri says his table-topping team have plenty of room for improvement after a 2-0 win over Genoa on Friday.

A Zlatan Ibrahimovic penalty and Antonio Nocerino’s 79th-minute tap-in saw Milan move top of the league with the win at Stadio Luigi Ferraris.

Juventus will have a chance to return to the summit when they meet Cesena on Sunday.

Allegri, who expects to sign a contract extension at the San Siro in the coming days, said his side would get better.

“The performance was good, we created a lot and only risked anything at the start of second half because we stopped playing,” he said.

“But the win is deserved and it was never under discussion. (Kevin-Prince) Boateng … played simpler in the second half which made him more helpful to the team.”

“We still have large margin for improvement, nevertheless we’re on the right track. We put ourselves to the test every day.”

Ibrahimovic opened the scoring from the spot on 56 minutes when Kakha Kaladze, against his former club, picked up a second yellow card for a foul on the Swede, while Nocerino tapped in Robinho’s cutback to wrap up the win.

Robinho squandered a glorious chance when he put a shot over the bar from a yard out on the hour-mark, but Allegri paid tribute to the Brazilian’s involvement in Nocerino’s goal.

“Robinho contributed to the goal with a great move. I compliment him for his assist in the penalty incident,” Allegri said.

“As for the miss, football is like that, at times you miss incredible chances and at others you score out of nowhere. It happens.”

Meanwhile, under-fire Genoa manager Alberto Malesani rued his team’s lack of discipline after a fifth red card of the campaign.

“We had based our approach on counter-attacks, although perhaps we got a bit too pegged back into our own half, even if we rarely ran risks,” Malesani said.

“When we started to play a little better, we went down to 10 men and conceded a goal because of our mistake. It’s our fifth red card of the season, we go a man down too many times and it’s not good enough.”