Palermo produced a spirited display to hold Milan to a 2-2 draw at the San Siro in the Italian Cup semi-final, first leg, yesterday.

The result gives the Sicilians an excellent chance of progressing when they play the second leg in Palermo in three weeks.

The winners will face either holders Inter or Roma in the final, with the nerazzurri holding a 1-0 advantage following their win in Rome on Tuesday.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic gave Milan the lead but Urby Emanuelson had to come to their rescue after Javier Pastore and Abel Hernandez had turned the tie on its head.

The hosts went in front after just four minutes as Palermo allowed Massimo Oddo’s deep cross to arrive all the way to the back post where Ibrahimovic had the simple task of volleying home from close range.

Palermo came roaring back and on 14 minutes it was all square as Pastore burst past the hesitating Sokratis Papastathopoulos before finishing crisply left-footed across keeper Marco Amelia.

The visitors were close to going in front on 35 minutes after a brilliant move between Pastore and Antonio Nocerino, who set up Maurizio Pinilla but the Chilean slipped as he went to shoot and fired over.

Milan were proving brittle at the back and Pastore slipped Hernandez in behind the defence to crash an unstoppable shot in off the underside of the bar eight minutes after the restart.

Milan expectedly started to push forward and the equaliser came on 76 minutes as Ibrahimovic caused havoc with quick feet in the box and although Dorin Goian tackled him, the ball broke to Emanuelson to rifle home.