The midweek contest represented a game in hand for both sides after it was pushed back from its initial date due to the Winter Olympics opening ceremony held at the San Siro.
Rather than a gold medal, Milan are chasing the prize of the Serie A title, so they would have been bitterly disappointed to have gifted Como a 32nd-minute lead, not long after Mergim Vojvoda had seen an effort chalked off for offside.
The usually dependable Mike Maignan saw his risky pass intercepted by the grateful Nico Paz, who wasted little time in driving a low shot past the embarrassed Milan goalkeeper.
Moments later, Maignan’s opposite number Jean Butez was called into action to pull off a superb reaction stop to prevent Fikayo Tomori from firing home an instant leveller, ensuring the visitors took a narrow lead into the break.
Unfortunately for Butez, he went from hero to zero when he made the game’s second major goalkeeping mistake in the 64th minute. The shot-stopper came racing off his line in an attempt to deal with a long ball forward, only for Leao to calmly lift it over his head into the awaiting net to register his eighth Serie A goal of the season.
With the contest finely poised, both teams threatened to snatch the spoils in the closing stages.
Leao sent his header crashing off the underside of the crossbar with an effort that would have been ruled out for offside anyway, before Anastasios Douvikas rifled a volley into the side-netting to the relief of Massimiliano Allegri, who was forced to watch the final moments away from the dugout after being sent off following a confrontation with the Como coaching staff.
Allegri would have been frustrated with the fact that his team only reduced the gap to Inter to seven points in the title race, while Cesc Fabregas’s charges move up to sixth and within four points of fifth-placed Juventus.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Rafael Leao (AC Milan)
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