Barcelona extended its winless streak further with another humiliating loss of 2-0 against AC Milan. Mario Balotelli grabbed the headlines again as 10-man AC Milan got a firm grip on third place in Serie A with a 2-0 win Friday at lowly Genoa which maintained their unbeaten league run to 10 games.
Balotelli, who began on the bench, netted the clinching second after his replacement, Giampaolo Pazzini, had notched the opener.
But the result was marred by a terrible second half incident as Guinea full-back Kevin Constant was sent-off for a persistent attempt to confront Genoa's Cesare Bovo 25 minutes from time.
Even after receiving first a second yellow from the referee, and finally the subsequent red, Constant refused to leave the field as he persistently attempted to approach Bovo.
It was several minutes before a gaggle of teammates managed to lead him from the pitch.
But that did not avoid Milan from extending their recent unbeaten run which has taken them to within two points of second-placed Napoli ahead of the weekend games.
Despite a shaky start to the season, in which they lost five of their opening eight league games, Milan now get hold of a Champions League qualification spot and lead Spanish giants Barcelona 2-0 ahead of their last 16, second leg clash in that competition at the Camp Nou next week.
"It's a great win in the chase for third place," said Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri.
"Now we're going to turn our attentions to Barcelona and prepare for that match as well as we can.
"I'm sorry about Constant's sending off, there wasn't much risk and we could have clinched that result without wasting too much energy," he told Sky Sport.
"We could have saved ourselves, you have to stay calm."
In a chanceless first period chances were at a premium but teenage French forward M'Baye Niang successfully got hold of a fine save out of his compatriot and home goalkeeper Sebastien Frey on 20 minutes with a solid effort.
Just two minutes later Pazzini opened the scoring.
He'd been limping around the pitch and was apparently getting to his bench that he wanted to come off following a major challenge from Daniele Portanova, when a Mattia De Sciglio cross from the right was stretched out into his path on the edge of the box and the Italy striker forgot his injury for an instant to crash a rising shot in off the underside of the bar.
After some time, he did indeed limp off to be replaced by Balotelli, whose first act was to earn a booking when taking revenge on Pazzini's assailant.
Genoa felt they had a shout for a penalty late in the first half when they claimed a handball against Niang but the referee remained unmoved.
The hosts came their closest yet soon after the restart as Bovo bent a wicked free-kick beyond Milan goalkeeper Christian Abbiati, only to see it crash back off the upright.
They paid for that on the hour mark as Balotelli pounced on a scuffed shot from Christian Zapata to shoot across Frey and double the visitors' lead.
Despite being on the ground for the last 25 minutes with a man advantage, fourth-from-bottom Genoa could make no progress.
