AC Milan’s long unbeaten run came to a surprising end on Sunday as the Rossoneri were downed 2-0 by an impressive Palermo thanks to goals by Fabrizio Miccoli and Aussie midfielder Mark Bresciano.

Going into the match Leonardo’s men had recorded five successive wins in Serie A and were unbeaten since September 30th.

The Rossoneri’s new lease of life pointed to a home banker against a Palermo side who had prior to Sunday’s win lost five of their seven games on road in the league.

Yet, football wouldn't be the beautiful game it is without it's ability to produce shocks on a regular basis, and sure enough the Aquile tore up the form book to defeat an out-of-sorts Milan side.

Racked by injuries to Thiago Silva, Massimo Oddo, Gennaro Gattuso, Oguchi Onyewu, and Daniele Bonera, and having opted to rest striker Alexandre Pato, Leonardo saw his men struggle as Palermo went for the jugular early on and Uruguayan Edinson Cavani shot wide when clean through.

The hosts took a while to get into the game and did not muster their first real shot until the 17th minute when Clarence Seedorf’s cross-come-shot missed everyone including the diving Marco Borriello.

In a bout of footballing ping-pong, Palermo then went up the other goal and missed another great chance as Bresciano flashed a shot wide, before Ronaldinho neatly slipped in Borriello whose shot was just off target to bring to a close a tight first half.

In the second half saw Delio Rossi’s men continued to have attack and they were duly rewarded for their bravery when striker Fabrizio Miccoli gave the visitors the lead.

The former Rossoneri ball-boy cut in from the left before unleashing a fierce right-foot shot beyond Dida for 1-0 in the 49th minute.

One soon became two as a fantastic piece of skill by Miccoli on the byline saw him skin Luca Antonini before finding Javier Pastore whose shot was blocked, and Bresciano was on hand to slam the ball home for 2-0.

The away bench were ecstatic yet somewhat bemused at such a terrific showing and despite the introduction of veteran striker Flippo Inzaghi, the hosts could do nothing as they crashed to their third defeat of the season.

After the match AC Milan coach Leonardo paid tribute to an inspired Palermo display and rued a poor display from his men.

“I have to give merit to Palermo this afternoon,” he told Sky Sports.

“They presented themselves in top condition on all levels: tactically, mentally and physically. It was a balanced game, but the two goals at the start of the second half certainly swung the result in their favour and they merited victory today.

“It was a difficult game. We created loads of chances but unfortunately we just weren’t able to convert them this afternoon,” he added.

The defeat left Milan in second place in the table on 31 points, five points behind table-toppers Inter Milan who were held 1-1 at Atalanta. Meanwhile struggling Juventus stay in third despite crashing to their second defeat in three matches when they were beaten 3-1 by Bari.