AC Milan's uphill battle to close the gap to the top of Serie A continued when they were held to a 1-1 draw at home by relegation-battlers Cagliari on Saturday in new head coach Sérgio Conceição's league debut.

Cagliari stunned the hosts in the 55th minute when defender Nadir Zortea scored from a counter-attack four minutes after Álvaro Morata's opener for Milan from close range.

Conceicao, who was appointed on Dec. 30 to replace sacked Paulo Fonseca, led Milan to Italian Super Cup success on Monday against Inter Milan, becoming the manager who needed the fewest games (two) to win a trophy with the club since 1929-30.

It may take time, however, for the Portuguese coach to turn around their Serie A fortunes, with Milan having won one of their last five league games.

They sit eighth in the standings on 28 points, eight points behind fourth-placed Lazio but have two games in hand.

The hosts dominated the entire match and midfielder Tijjani Reijnders should have put them in front after 20 minutes but his low attempt was denied by Cagliari goalkeeper Elia Caprile.

Milan keeper Mike Maignan stretched to keep out Mattia Felici's lofted effort from the edge of the box just before the break.

The hosts were strong after the restart with Christian Pulisic hitting the bar from the edge of the area and Morata finding the side netting before the Spaniard broke the deadlock in the 51st minute.

Theo Hernández found Pulisic inside the box with a stunning diagonal ball and the American's effort was deflected onto the post by Caprile before Morata scrambled the rebound home.

Zortea, however, levelled for Cagliari four minutes later with a low shot from outside the box for his fourth league goal of the season, the joint most goals by a defender in the big five European leagues this campaign.

Milan were still in control and Pulisic had a great chance to restore their lead but was thwarted by Caprile after the hour-mark before Hernández fired a terrific shot over the bar.

But the 23-year-old Caprile brilliantly denied further shots by Tammy Abraham and Hernández, before saving the France defender's free kick deep into stoppage time.

Cagliari, who snapped their losing streak of five games across all competitions last weekend when they won 2-1 at bottom side Monza, are 18th with 18 points.