Palermo 0-4 AC Milan

AC Milan extended their lead at the top of Serie A this afternoon with a 4-0 win over Palermo.

The match began at a frantic space, with Urby Emanuelson twice going close in the opening ten minutes, while Edgar Barreto spurned a good chance at the other end.

Milan took the lead after 20 minutes when Robinho put Zlatan Ibrahimovic in, and the Swede curled the ball past the despairing dive of Emiliano Viviano in the Palermo goal.

Milan's second featured the same duo linking up, Robinho breaking away before finding Ibrahimovic, who again fired his shot past Viviano.

The Sweden international completed his first-half hat-trick just two minutes later when he curled a shot into the top corner from 20 yards.

Ibrahimovic almost got a fourth immediately after but he was denied by a instinctive save.

Milan got their fourth 13 minutes after the restart when substitute El Shaarawy found Thiago Silva in the box, and the defender made no mistake with his header.

Two minutes later Palermo were almost handed a glimmer of hope, but Barreto's effort came back off the post with Christian Abbiati well beaten.

The result means that Milan extend their lead at the top of Serie A to four points while Palermo miss the chance to leapfrog Inter, staying in 8th place.