AC Milan climbed to the top of the Serie A on Sunday with a solitary strike from Rafael Leao making all the difference in the 1-0 win over Sampdoria.

With seven minutes gone Leao collected a huge kick from goalkeeper Mike Maignan and breezed past Bartosz Bereszynski before slotting home his seventh of the season.

Stefano Pioli's side was four points behind Inter, who drew 1-1 in an enthralling match with fellow title rivals Napoli in Naples on Saturday, before last weekend's Milan derby win but has taken the summit after a dominant display at the San Siro.

It also set up another two derbies with Inter in the Italian Cup semifinals after smashing Lazio 4-0 on Wednesday.

"This is a perfect week, it's not easy to do much better than this," midfielder Sandro Tonali told Sky Sport Italia.

"We are proud, but getting satisfied with ourselves after the last three matches would be the stupidest thing we could do."

Just two points separate Italy's top three as third-placed Napoli are themselves one behind Inter – who has a game in hand – in a title race that could go down to the wire.

Milan met very little resistance from Samp, which is sliding toward the relegation zone after a fifth defeat in six matches.

Marco Giampaolo's side is just two points from the bottom three.

Olivier Giroud, who came into Sunday's match having scored four goals since last weekend for Milan, was twice denied in the second half by superb saves from Wladimiro Falcone.

First the veteran France international was denied after pulling off an acrobatic bicycle kick just before the hour mark and 14 minutes later he could only watch on in disbelief as Falcone plucked his close-range header out from under the bar.

Milan missed another golden chance to close out the match with eight minutes left when Ante Rebic fluffed a good chance in front of Falcone before Tonali and Franck Kessie both failed to net on the rebound.

Juve snatches point at Atalanta

Juventus, in the meantime, cemented its place in the Champions League positions after Danilo snatched a last-gasp point in a 1-1 draw at Atalanta.

Atalanta thought that it had leapfrogged Juve into the top four when Ukraine midfielder Ruslan Malinovskyi unleashed an unstoppable strike in the 76th minute at the Gewiss Stadium.

However, Danilo nodded home Paulo Dybala's corner in the 92nd minute to snatch a point that keeps Juve fourth, two points ahead of Atalanta who has a game in hand.

Roma is six points behind Juve in seventh after Bryan Cristante scored a 94th-minute equalizer to earn his side a 2-2 draw at Sassuolo.