AC Milan left it late to pick up their second win of the season with a narrow victory over a defensive Bologna.
Clarence Seedorf grabbed the winner in the 75th minute after Bologna had held firm against Milan's steady, yet rarely convincing attacks.
The performance indicated that Milan are still short of their top form, but the result at least takes them back in the right direction after picking up just one point in their last two Serie A matches.
Milan brushed away the early-season cobwebs with a 2-1 win at Marseille in the Champions League in midweek, but while the European competition appears to suit the Rossoneri, Serie A continues to pose them a few problems.
After losing heavily to city rivals Inter Milan, they were only able to pick up a point at Livorno last weekend.
And the same 0-0 scoreline appeared to be in the air for much of the 90 minutes at the San Siro today as Bologna defended deep and in numbers, leaving just Marco Di Vaio and Marcelo Zalayeta alone in attack.
It was up to Milan to break them down and find a route through to goal, but that was proving a big enough challenge for Leonardo's men.
Gennaro Gattuso should have put them ahead with their one and only chance of the first half in the 14th minute, but be contrived to volley the ball over the crossbar from seven yards out after Alexandre Pato pulled the ball back from the goal line.
Gattuso held his head in shame at the glaring miss, and it looked like it could prove costly as Bologna kept the Rossoneri at bay for the rest of the half.
It looked like a set-piece would be the only way for Milan to break the deadlock and Andrea Pirlo almost obliged in the first minute of the second half, but his free-kick took a slight deflection off the wall to drift inches wide of the post.
Milan's midweek hero Filippo Inzaghi was introduced with 20 minutes remaining and his first shot was tipped over by Emiliano Viviano.
When it looked like it was not going to be Milan's day, Seedorf, who took the plaudits for the way he replaced Ronaldinho in Marseille on Tuesday, raced forward to unblock the game.
Andrea Raggi backed off and invited the Dutch midfielder to progress into the penalty area. Once he had passed Raggi's half-hearted challenge, he slid the ball past Viviano into the back of the net from close range.
Inzaghi came close to adding a second when he hit the outside of the post in the 83rd minute and that nearly proved to be a costly miss as Bologna had two late chances to level.
Marco Storari flew across his goal to push a Nicola Mingazzini effort wide of the post and, from the resulting corner, Daniele Portanova sent an unstoppable bullet header just inches wide of the left-hand post.
But one goal proved to be enough to lift Leonardo's men into the top half of Serie A with their second win of the season.
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