AC Milan will keep their foot on the gas in their chase for a Champions League place, coach Carlo Ancelotti said on Monday.
''We can't stop now,'' Ancelotti said after Brazilian teen sensation Pato came on to score his fourth goal in five games and give the Rossoneri a key 1-0 win at Champions rival Fiorentina.
''We have to keep stringing the results together because the championship is still uncertain,'' said Ancelotti, whose team is now four behind the fifth-placed Florentines with a game in hand.
Turning to Pato, Ancelotti hailed a ''great goal'' and ''20 minutes of very high quality'' but added that ''he still moves too instinctively''.
Milan will know in two days the extent of the injury the 18-year-old sustained when he twisted his ankle and was stretchered off in tears soon after his goal.
''Let's hope it's not too serious,'' said Ancelotti, who will face Siena next Sunday without banned Alberto Gilardino and injured Ronaldo.
Veteran star Filippo Inzaghi, just back from injury himself, is now the only first-choice striker Ancelotti can count on.
With 17 games to go until a last-day face-off on May 18 with Udinese, currently beside them on 33 points, Milan is hoping to revive a domestic season that had appeared doomed after a dismal start.
One of the other keys to their Champions chase could be Australian goalie Zeljko Kalac, whose last-minute game-saving stop against Fiorentina revived some observers' memories of Dino Zoff's goal-line heroics for Italy against Brazil in the 1982 World Cup.
''Kalac is putting in great displays at the moment,'' Ancelotti said, ''so it's only right that he should keep the first-choice jersey (from Brazil's Nelson Dida)''.
''But let's not forget Dida's importance for this group,'' the coach added.
Meanwhile Inter are steamrollering towards their third straight title.
A controversial penalty converted by Zlatan Ibrahimovic gave them a 1-0 win over lowly Empoli and pulled them eight points clear of an unrecognisable Roma who lost 3-0 at Siena.
Juventus, who could only manage a 1-1 draw at home to bottom side Cagliari, slipped to 12 points behind Inter, three ahead of Fiorentina.
