Niang the man as Milan crush Samp, Torino move eighth
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M'Baye Niang starred for AC Milan, scoring two goals and contributing with an assist as Milan crushed a sorry Sampdoria 4-1 at the San Siro.
Twenty-year-old Niang produced a confident performance for the Rossoneri, first delivering for Giacomo Bonaventura's opener on 16 minutes and then beating Emiliano Viviano from the spot after the Milan winger had been hauled down in the area seven minutes before the interval. Niang secured Milan's seventh win of the campaign when he fired under Viviano four minutes after the restart after the 'keeper's fluffed cleance.
When he was replaced by Luiz Adriano 15 minutes from the whistle it took the Brazilian just four minutes to find the net after volleying Alessio Cerci's intelligent cross past Viviano. The only blot on Milan's copy was Gianluigi Donnarumma's failure to stop Luis Muriel from the spot after Andrea Pioli had tugged on Eder in the area in the closing minutes.
Milan moved up to fifth place at seven points behind leaders Inter ahead of the remainder of the weekend matches, with Sampdoria's second successive defeat under new coach Vincenzo Montella leaving them 14 points adrift.
Earlier, Torino moved up to eighth place with a 2-0 home win over Bologna thanks to second-half goals from Andrea Belotti and Giuseppe Vives.