Ten-man AC Milan secured a 1-0 home win over Udinese on Saturday with an early goal from Samuel Chukwueze after midfielder Tijjani Reijnders was sent off in the rain-hit Serie A clash.

Paulo Fonseca and his team were fortunate to secure victory as Udinese had two goals disallowed for narrow offside decisions, one from Kingsley Ehizibue and another from Christian Kabasele.

Milan are third in the league standings with 14 points, level with Inter Milan in second place and two points behind leaders Napoli.

Chukwueze broke the deadlock after 13 minutes, finishing off a team move with a first-time shot into the bottom far corner after an assist from Christian Pulisic.

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Despite Milan's dominance in the first 29 minutes, the dynamic changed when Reijnders was shown a straight red card after a collision with Udinese midfielder Sandi Lovric that went wide of the goal.

Ehizibue thought he had equalized for Udinese in the final moments of the first half, but the goal was disallowed.

The visitors tried to exploit their numerical advantage to equalize in the second half, while Milan tried to finish the game with quick counter-attacks, with both sides creating chances.

Towards the end, Milan almost doubled their lead when Pulisic's shot from inside the penalty area was parried by Udinese goalkeeper Maduka Okoye, but Tammy Abraham could not position herself in time to fire in the rebound.

What made matters worse for the English striker was that he apparently injured his shoulder in the subsequent fall and had to be substituted five minutes after being substituted on.

In the final minutes, Udinese applied considerable pressure and scored through Kabasele deep into stoppage time. However, after a detailed VAR review, the goal was disallowed for offside.