AC Milan have slumped to a 3-1 defeat by Fiorentina at San Siro in Serie A.

The first chance of the game fell to the Viola as early as the fourth minute when David Pizarro fired a shot at Christian Abbiati.

Three minutes later Stephan El Shaarawy got past four Fiorentina defenders to shoot just over the crossbar.

The visitors broke the deadlock in the 10th minute when former AC Milan midfielder Alberto Aquilani latched on to Adem Ljajic's layoff and fired past Abbiati into the Rossoneri net.

El Shaarawy almost replied immediately for Fiorentina, but failed to find the target from the edge of the area.

Milan got a great chance to restore parity in the 33rd minute when Facundo Roncaglia conceded a penalty after elbowing Alexandre Pato.

The Brazilian striker himself stepped up to take the spot kick but could only shoot over Emiliano Viviano's crossbar.

That miss came to haunt Pato and his Milan teammates, as Borja Valero got past Riccardo Montolivo and Philippe Mexes to score in the 38th minute.

The Rossoneri started the second half brightly and almost halved the deficit on 50 minutes when Montolivo's header from close range went just wide.

Ten minutes later Giampaolo Pazzini pulled one back for Milan when he slammed home from just yards out after Mexes's backheel had come off the post.

Fiorentina almost made it 3-1 in the 86th minute when substitute Mattia Cassani hit the post with only Abbiati to beat.

That did not affect the Viola much though, as just a minute later Mounir El Hamdaoui wrapped up the points for his side with a curling effort from the edge of the box.