Portugal winger Leao pushed Milan one point ahead of local rivals Inter Milan, Napoli and Roma with a coolly-taken spot-kick, given for what looked like a soft foul on Santiago Gimenez by Fabiano Parisi, with four minutes remaining.
That goal capped a fine first league start of the season for Leao, and came after he drew the hosts level with a brilliantly struck effort from distance in the 63rd minute.
“He’s an amazing talent, from outside when I used to watch him and now when I train with him, I see he is one of the best players in the world,” said Luka Modric to DAZN.
“The incredible thing is that he can still improve, it just depends on him. I hope these two goals can help him grow his confidence and be the main guy for us. He will be very important and we will depend a lot on him. He showed why tonight.”
Leao’s goals are a boost for Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri, who has had to deal with a spate of injuries, including to key players Adrien Rabiot and Christian Pulisic who were hurt on international duty and will not be back for weeks.
The 26-year-old’s brace cancelled out Robin Gosens’s opener in the 55th minute for Fiorentina, who are still seeking their first league win of the season under former Milan coach Pioli and sit in the relegation zone.
But Pioli said the awarding of the decisive penalty, given by referee Livio Marinelli following a check of the pitchside monitor, would “encourage players to dive at the slightest touch”.
Fiorentina’s sporting director Daniele Prade was even more blunt, blasting Marinelli for not having “the courage to back his original decision”.
“These are those incidents that change everything, we were playing to win the game and you just can’t do things like that. It’s scandalous,” said Prade.
“Gimenez was on the floor for 20 minutes and he was barely touched, it was almost grotesque… We didn’t deserve to lose and we definitely didn’t deserve to lose in that way.”
