ROME: Milan forward Rafael Leao scored the fastest goal in Serie A history, hitting the target after six seconds, to set the Serie A leaders on their way to a 2-1 win at Sassuolo.

In an astonishing start, Hakan Calhanoglu collected the ball straight from the kickoff and opened up the Sassuolo defence with an incisive pass to Leao and the Portuguese beat goalkeeper Andrea Consigli with an angled drive.

After Calhanoglu had a goal disallowed for offside in the build-up in the ninth minute, Alexis Saelemaekers added a second following a powerful Theo Hernandez run in the 26th minute. Domenico Berardi pulled one back for Sassuolo late in the game.

Milan, again missing injured forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic, remained unbeaten after 13 games and lead the standings with 31 points, one ahead of their neighbours Inter Milan.

Coach Stefano Pioli said later that his players had practised the quickfire start in training.

He added: “We have four or five possible situations for the kick-off which we alternate. We wanted to approach the game the right way from the start. We did very well to score after just six seconds and (Brahim) Diaz, (Hakan) Calhanoglu and Leao made the right movements.”

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