Milan: Gonzalo Higuain scored a brace to bring his tally of Serie A goals to 101 as Juventus went top of the Italian league with a 2-0 win that plunged AC Milan further into crisis on Saturday.

The 29-year-old Higuain opened after 23 minutes in front of a capacity 80,000 crowd at Milan’s San Siro Stadium and grabbed a second on 63 minutes for the six-time reigning champions.

It put Juventus provisionally top with 28 points from 11 games just ahead of Napoli on goal difference.

Napoli can reclaim top spot at Sassuolo on Sunday as can Inter Milan who are just two points behind the leaders before visiting Verona on Monday.

“Playing at the San Siro is never easy and Milan are historic rivals. In these fixtures, form is wiped out,” said coach Massimiliano Allegri.

“It sets us up nicely for the Champions League on Tuesday.”

For Higuain, the century of goals in Italy — after achieving the same in Spain — was revenge for his disallowed effort during the week.

“When they disallowed the goal against SPAL, we said it was my destiny to score the 100th at San Siro! Now it’s 101, not bad,” said the Argentine.

Milan were playing without captain Leonardo Bonucci who was completing his two-match ban against his former club.

But after early pressure from the hosts, Juventus got into their stride with Paulo Dybala weaving his way through for Higuain to blast in his 100th league goal.

Milan’s summer signing Nikola Kalinic got the best chance just before the break but Gianluigi Buffon dived to clear and his effort bounced off the crossbar.

Higuain’s second again came following excellent teamwork with Ghanaian Kwadwo Asamoah crossing for Dybala who let the ball pass between his legs for Higuain to trick Ricardo Rodriguez and rifle past Gianluigi Donnarumma for his sixth league goal of the season.

“Milan perhaps started stronger, but we’re a great team and when we play like that it’s difficult to beat us,” said Higuain.

“The coach said games never end at San Siro and that is absolutely true. We stayed focused for the full 90 minutes and made only one mistake, when they hit the bar.”

In Ligue 1, Monaco shrugged off the absence of leading scorer Radamel Falcao as they eased to a 2-0 victory away at Bordeaux, but Claudio Ranieri’s Nantes went down to a rare defeat.

Keita Balde and Thomas Lemar scored second-half goals for the defending champions, who close back to within four points of league leaders Paris Saint-Germain.

PSG, without the suspended Neymar, had maintained their unbeaten start to the campaign by brushing aside Nice 3-0 on Friday thanks to a brace from Edinson Cavani and a Dante own goal.

Cavani now has 99 Ligue 1 goals and 11 this season, leaving him just two point behind Falcao at the top of the scorers’ charts.

The Colombian scored a hat-trick when Monaco won 4-0 in Bordeaux last season but missed their most recent trip due to a thigh injury. He hopes to return for Wednesday’s Champions League clash with Besiktas in Istanbul.

In Falcao’s absence in Bordeaux, coach Leonardo Jardim selected former Lazio forward Balde to spearhead the principality side’s attack and he opened the scoring just before the hour mark.

Brazilian left-back Jorge delivered a ball into the box that was met by Joao Moutinho with a cushioned header down for Balde to finish.

It was his second goal in as many matches after he netted the opener in the 2-0 win over Caen last weekend.

France winger Lemar then made it 2-0 on 65 minutes, collecting a long ball forward by Kamil Glik and cutting in from the left before firing home.

Bordeaux could not get back into the game and have now taken just one point from their last four outings as they sit seventh.

“It is a good victory with the players who were available today and who are capable of winning matches for us,” said Jardim.

“Keita Balde is raising his performance levels every day and we can use him out wide or through the middle.”

Semi-finalists last season, Monaco are currently bottom of their Champions League group, meaning their midweek trip to Turkey will be crucial.