AC Milan were left lamenting Rodrigo Ely's first-half dismissal as Sinisa Mihajlovic began life on the Milan touchline in the worst possible fashion, losing 2-0 to Fiorentina.

The Rossoneri were forced to play with ten men for most of the evening after the youngster saw red for successive fouls on Fiorentina's Nikola Kalinic. 

Marcos Alonso netted a sumptous free-kick to open the scoring before Josip Ilicic dispatched from 12-yards to extend his side's lead midway through the second-half.

Trading blows

With all eyes firmly placed upon the striking duo of Carlos Bacca and Luiz Adriano in rosonneri, it was the former's opposite number, Nikola Kalinic, recently signed from Dnipro, who began the match the brightest. 

The Croatian found himself in a pocket of space between the Milan defensive duo of Alessio Romagnoli and Rodrigo Ely nine minutes in and, as he was released through the middle, was cynically bundled down by Ely who went straight into the referee's notebook.

The South American duo remained isolated in attack, with Adriano the subject of several Fiorentina fouls, though Milan were presented with their first opportunity of the evening when Nigel De Jong's volley ricocheted its way into Giacomo Bonaventura's vicinity, but his snapshot was blocked by Nenad Tomovic in Fiorentina colours.

The biggest, and most clear-cut, chance of the half fell to Kalinic, however. Again, the burly forward found himself goal-side of the Milan reargued, but was denied by the legs of Milan No.1 Diego Lopez.

Bonaventura, just over ten minutes removed from his earlier opportunity, was left beaming when he diverted a free-header at the back post into the ground and past the post.

Sending off proved the turning point

But the tie turned on its head when Ely, previously admonished for his foul on Kalinic, was given a second yellow by referee Paolo Valeri. The youngster, granted his Serie A debut by Sinisa Mihajlovic, found himself too tight to the Croatian yet again and could have no complaints over the referee's decision.

Marcos Alonso, to further compound Milan's misery, curled in the resulting free-kick to open his and La Viola's account for the season.

Fiorentina extend their dominance

With an numerical advantage in midfield, Sousa's side stamped their authority on proceedings as they continued their assault on Diego Lopez's goal.

Eight minutes after the interval, Federico Bernardeschi scuttled forward, liberated Josip Ilicic through the heart of the Milan backline, but the Slovenian found Lopez equal to his effort.

With Bacca starved of service, Fiorentina went about extending their lead when Alessio Romagnoli was adjudged to have brought down Ilicic in the penalty area. The forward, who wreaked havoc all evening, dispatched the subsequent penalty with composure to double his side's advantage.

A miserable evening for Milan's new boys

Even when Fiorentina's concentration levels plummeted, Milan were still yet to yield a potent effort on goal.

When Luiz Adriano was presented with a sniff of an opportunity midway through the second period, but substitute Davide Astori, who had initially gifted Milan the ball, was able to shuttle back amend for his error. 

Bacca’s blushes were then spared by the linesman after he flagged for offside when the Colombian headed across goal when the Fiorentina goal was gaping.

When Antonio Nocerino, who replaced the disappointing Andrea Bertolacci with 20 minutes remaining, slalomed his way through the spine of the Fiorentina XI to tee up Bonaventura, the Italian, as was the pattern throughout the evening, fluffed his lines for what felt like the umpteenth time.

Mihajlovic's side tired as the game progressed and were subjected to the humility of "Ole's" from the Fiorentina fraternity with minutes remaining on the clock.

Empoli await next week and will be a considerably lesser ask than a mightily impressive Fiorentina side. But, riding on the wave of several marquee arrivals, Milan were brought crashing back down to planet Earth this evening.