The South American football federation has banned the Brazilian club’s supporters because of the death of a visiting 14-year-old Bolivian fan, who was killed by a flare when San Jose visited in a previous Copa Libertadores match.

Despite this, four supporters challenged the ban in the Brazilian courts and were allowed to enter the Pacaembu.

Despite the quiet in the ground, it took Jose Guerrero only nine minutes to open the scoring, pouncing on a loose ball in the box to fire home.

The hosts continued to dominate the game, but Alexandre Pato (twice), Paulinho, Renato Augusto and Guerrero all missed chances.

Early in the second half the Brazilians finally doubled their advantage and secured the victory: Ralf crossed for Pato and this time the former AC Milan forward made no mistake.

Another Brazilian giant, Fluminense, came back to claim a 2-1 victory over Huachipato in Chile to lead Group Eight.

The first half was very poor, with few goal chances, the best one wasted by Wellington Nem for the visitors when he hit the crossbar.

But just before the break, defender Leandro Euzebio made a mistake allowing Huachipato’s Braian Rodriguez in and the striker showed no mercy.

Fluminense was rejuvenated in the second half and in the 66th minute Fred found Wellington Nem, who this time made no mistake and equalized with a powerful shot. And 10 minutes later, Wagner jumped off the bench and almost immediately made it 2-1.

Meanwhile, in a Group One match in Ecuador, Argentinian side Boca Juniors claimed a key win over Barcelona, 2-1.

Boca lost its first game at home against Mexican side Toluca, but the Argentines fully recovered Wednesday.

After a goalless first half, the hosts opened the scoring through Juan Manuel Martinez in the 58th minute, after a header from Lucas Viatri, and when Barcelona was trying to recover, Claudio Perez made it 2-0 with a header four minutes later.

The Ecuadorians narrowed the gap in the 92nd minute, after a needless foul by Clemente Rodriguez into the box, with Michael Arroyo scoring the penalty kick.

Finally, in a Group Four match in Chile, Iquique beat Ecuador’s Emelec, 2-0 with first-half goals from Sebastian Ereros and Manuel Villalobos.

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Kevin-Prince Boateng gave Milan the lead in controversial circumstances in the 57th minute. Cristian Zapata appeared to handle Riccardo Montolivo’s assist in the buildup.

Barcelona players protested but to no avail and Gerard Pique was booked in the process.

Sulley Muntari sealed the win nine minutes from time with a well-worked goal.

Milan contained Barcelona’s potent attack impressively, allowing it just two shots on target all match.

Lionel Messi, kept quiet by Milan, had two late chances from free kicks and sent both shots well over the crossbar.

The result was a massive boost to Milan’s turnaround from a dreadful start to the season. Massimiliano Allegri’s side was 15th in the Italian league after eight games but has risen to third.

It still went into the home match as a firm underdog against a Barcelona side which has lost only twice all season in the league and in Europe.

“I think it was a great game,” Allegri said. “The lads deserved this win. We didn’t concede anything in defence and we had several chances. But it wasn’t perfect, we were a bit lacking with the last ball in the first half but the team grew in the second. I think this is an important victory which will put us through. We could even have won 3-0, but I understand tiredness set in a bit.

“This is everyone’s win, the players who played, those who didn’t, the staff … everyone.”

It was Barcelona’s first loss by two goals since a 3-1 defeat to Real Betis in the Spanish Cup on Jan. 19, 2011.

“It was harder than usual for us to score,” Barcelona assistant coach Jordi Roura said. “Milan was very organized, very strong in defence and that caused us a lot of problems. We were also playing on a pitch that wasn’t worthy of this competition. We controlled in the first half, we didn’t create chances but neither did they. Then their first goal really hurt us and it was then even harder.

“If there is a team that can come back it is us. This result isn’t disastrous. It’s really awful to lose 2-0, really bad. But I think this squad deserves faith. We are convinced we can progress, because we are playing at home (next month), because our fans will support us, and because we’re playing on our pitch, which is a pitch worthy of this competition.”

While the teams knew each other well having played each other four times last season, this was a much-changed Milan side after losing experienced players such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva, Alessandro Nesta and Clarence Seedorf in the off-season.

Milan was also without Mario Balotelli, who was cup tied, and Robinho, Mathieu Flamini, Antonio Nocerino, Daniele Bonera, Luca Antonini and Nigel De Jong, who were all injured.

However, it was the Italian side which had the better opportunities in the first half and almost scored in the fifth minute when Muntari’s speculative volley from outside the area sailed narrowly over the crossbar.

Stephen El Shaarawy had a chance when he cut inside the right side of the area but Barcelona captain Carles Puyol tackled him as he was about to unleash a shot. From the resulting corner Boateng curled an effort just past the far post. Giampaolo Pazzini was a whisker away from connecting with what would have been a header into an empty net.

El Shaarawy won a free kick 10 minutes after the break when he was brought down by Dani Alves. It was squared to Montolivo, whose effort appeared to be handled by Zapata as it fell to Boateng, who swivelled and fired it into the bottom right corner.

Milan doubled its lead in the 81st. Substitute M’Baye Niang’s cross was flicked on by El Shaarawy to Muntari, who found himself in acres of space to volley past Victor Valdes.

Barca almost scored a valuable away goal late on, but Puyol headed a corner just wide of the left upright much to the satisfaction of spectator Novak Djokovic, the tennis star who is a fervent Milan fan.

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But Schalke scorer, midfielder Jermaine Jones, will miss the second leg of their last-16 tie on March 12 through suspension after picking up his third yellow card of the competition — 10 minutes before scoring.

Jones called the yellow card “stupid” but said the team was “absolutely satisfied” with the result.

Burak Yilmaz opened the scoring against the run of play in the 12th, displaying great skill to lift the ball over Schalke captain Benedikt Hoewedes with the back of his heel before blasting the ball past Timo Hildebrand.

Jones was booked in the 35th after calling for a yellow card for an opponent, but finished off a swift counterattack to equalize before the interval. Jefferson Farfan ran onto Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s ball forward before playing it into the centre for the American to score emphatically.

“Whenever it comes to the crunch, we’re there,” said Hildebrand, referring to the club’s poor midseason form.

Huntelaar, who recovered from an eye injury to play, missed two good chances to improve Schalke’s record of just one win from its last 13 games across all competitions.

Galatasaray defender Dany Nounkeu cleared from the Dutchman in the first minute, when Jones drew a save from Fernando Muslera and Farfan played in the rebound.

A wayward pass from Schalke midfielder Roman Neustaedter led to the opening goal, with recent signings Wesley Sneijder and Didier Drogba both involved before Selcuk Inan found Burak Yilmaz to score his seventh goal of the competition.

Huntelaar then missed with the goal at his mercy after failing to connect with Hoewedes’ header at the far post.

Two minutes later, Hildebrand saved from Drogba and former Schalke midfielder Hamit Altintop struck the crossbar from the rebound.

Hildebrand was again called into action to deny Burak Yilmaz, before Jones drew the sides level.

Sneijder was taken off at halftime after failing to deal with Schalke’s forays down the right.

However, the visitors maintained most of the possession after the break, only to be let down by the final ball.

The 19-year-old Julian Draxler berated Huntelaar for failing to read his intentions as another pass went astray in the penalty area.

Huntelaar and Burak Yilmaz had chances to win at either end, but the Dutchman fired over before being replaced, while the impressive Turkey striker was narrowly wide of the far post.

Galatasaray midfielder Nordin Amrabat laid out the strategy for the return leg: “The formula for victory is very simple. We need to score and win (in Gelsenkirchen). But it won’t be an easy task.”

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