To Messina's delight, Milan finished what it started in Barcelona

The Italian side was able to protect its lead in the fourth quarter after several painful defeats.

EA7 Emporio Armani Milan produced the shock of the week in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague with an impressive 86-90 win over host FC Barcelona on Friday, after the home side had headed into the clash as odds-on favorites to come out on top.

The result snapped an eight-game home winning streak and dropped Barca to 10-4, now tied for second place and losing ground on reigning champs Real Madrid, who look unstoppable at the pinnacle with a 13-1 record.

Milan improved to 5-9, reigniting its postseason hopes and putting an end to a three-game losing streak that had sent the Italian side into a freefall towards the bottom of the 18-team standings.

The victory was all the more impressive given that Milan was missing a number of key players. Nikola Mirotic and Maodo Lo were unavailable alongside long-term casualties Billy Baron and Kevin Pangos, meaning that the visitors were severely shorthanded for one of the most difficult road games of the season.

However, those who did make the trip stepped up to the plate magnificently. Devon Hall led the charge with a game-high 21 points, shooting 8-for-10 from the floor and 3-for-3 at the foul line. Shavon Shields scored 17 of his 19 points in the first half, when Milan twice engineered 15-point leads that proved too much for a misfiring Barcelona.

Veteran Nicolo Melli racked up 16 points and 6 boards, while also celebrating a milestone as he climbed up to fourth place on the EuroLeague all-time list in defensive rebounds. Last but not least, role player Diego Flaccadori netted 15 points and Johannes Voigtmann got Milan going with a pair of early long-range shots to finish on 8 points and 5 rebounds, underlining a balanced Milan effort.

The win was that much sweeter for Milan's head coach, Ettore Messina, whose team came under intense scrutiny after several tough losses when it was unable to hold its own in the home stretch, most recently in an 82-69 defeat at Partizan in Round 13, when Milan spilled a 45-60 third-quarter lead. Messina was overjoyed with how his team fended off a series of Barca attempts to conjure a comeback on Friday.

"We beat a great team on the back of a very good performance, and a disciplined one," Messina told the post-game press conference.

"It's a very important win because we've been unlucky recently and it will hopefully instill some confidence in the team. We played very well against the likes of Efes, Valencia, Zvezda and Olympiacos, but we lost most of those games and many of them in the fourth quarter.

"In our last outing at Partizan, we were up by 15 points in the third quarter and hence it was so important we were able to protect our lead tonight and come away with a win."

The result will have put wind into Milan's sails ahead of the next week's double-round schedule, with the Italian side at home to 17th-placed ASVEL Villeurbanne (2-12) and ninth-placed Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens (7-7).

If the performance against Barcelona is anything to go by, Milan could be on the verge of turning around its fortunes in Europe's premier club competition.