Milan got back to winning ways against Chievo, but only thanks to a soft penalty.

The Rossoneri were still smarting from their 1-1 draw at Lecce and knew they could not lower their guard despite Chievo losing four on the bounce. Milan's injury list was extended to include Marco Borriello, Gianluca Zambrotta, Massimo Ambrosini, Andrea Pirlo, Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Nesta, while the visitors left behind Erjon Bogdani and 'Foquinha' Kerlon.

Before kick-off Kaka was presented with the FIFPro World XI award, voted by his peers.

Ronaldinho protested early on for Marco Malago's handling offence on his free kick, but it certainly seemed to be involuntary. Moments later the referee pointed to the spot for Simone Bentivoglio's trip on Kaka, although replays show the contact was outside the box. The Brazilian stepped up and buried it over Stefano Sorrentino's diving body.

Kakha Kaladze just failed to make enough contact on Clarence Seedorf's low pass from six yards. There was a fine counter involving Inzaghi holding up Ronaldinho's ball for Kaka to blast over.

Chievo were dangerous from set pieces, as Christian Abbiati plucked a Luciano glancing header from a free kick. Ronaldinho had a penalty shout for Mandelli's tackle to cut his mazy run short.

Sorrentino replied to an artfully curled Ronaldinho strike from 10 yards, while Abbiati rushed out to close down Luciano as he ran on to Sergio Pellissier's through ball.

Abbiati punched a free kick off the head of Mandelli and clattered into teammate Kaladze, but soon after he was forced into a great save to keep Milan in front. He was at full stretch to fingertip Simone Bentivoglio's angled rocket round the post.

Moments later Mandelli fired wide of the upright from a promising position, then Ronaldinho's ball in saw two Milan players collide in their bid to get on the end of it.

Sorrentino spilled a Marek Jankulovski angled drive, then Ronaldinho combined with Alexandre Pato for the youngster's shot at the goalkeeper's legs. Pato also wasted a golden opportunity with a scuffed header, again set up by his fellow Brazilian.

Sorrentino flew to fingertip a Jankulovski free kick out from under the crossbar, then the last kick of the game was another save on the Czech full-back.