Despite missing 11 players, Milan made the most of gifts from nine-man Roma with Olivier Giroud, Junior Messias and Rafael Leao on target, despite a Zlatan Ibrahimovic parried penalty.
The Rossoneri went into this game decimated, as five players – Fikayo Tomori, Alessio Romagnoli, Davide Calabria, Samu Castillejo and Ciprian Tatarusanu – were positive for COVID-19, Simon Kjaer, Pietro Pellegri and Alessandro Plizzari injured, Franck Kessie, Ismael Bennacer and Fodo Ballo-Toure away on Africa Cup of Nations duty. The Giallorossi missed Borja Mayoral, Daniel Fuzato, Amadou Diawara and Ebrima Darboe, but Lorenzo Pellegrini had his first start since November.
Rui Patricio was immediately called into a fantastic save, as a corner was cleared to the edge of the box for a sensational Theo Hernandez volley. However, upon reviewing it on the VAR monitor, it was clear Tammy Abraham had moved his arm towards the ball and just grazed it. The referee had to award a penalty, converted by Olivier Giroud.
There was another gift from the Roma defence, as Giroud pounced on the awful Roger Ibanez back-pass, hit the outside of the post, but Junior Messias turned in the rebound.
Mike Maignan used his legs to deny Nicolò Zaniolo at the near post after the offside trap failed, then made an extraordinary save when Abraham redirected Zaniolo’s strike with his head.
On the resulting corner, it was a repeat, but this time there was nothing Maignan could do as Abraham flicked on the Pellegrini snapshot.
After the restart, Brahim Diaz was only denied by the crossbar after unleashing a rocket from outside the box.
Maignan also got down for a fingertip save on Abraham’s low drive and parry the long-range Henrikh Mkhitaryan strike.
Rick Karsdorp was involved in a series of clashes with Theo Hernandez all night and received his second yellow card for taking down the France international just outside the box, reducing Roma to 10 men.
From the resulting free kick, Alessandro Florenzi almost scored against his old club, smacking the precise spot where the crossbar meets the far upright.
Milan did get their deserved third goal with two substitutes combining, as Zlatan Ibrahimovic chested down a long ball in midfield to send Rafael Leao sprinting forward, keeping his cool to beat Rui Patricio.
There was almost a fourth in stoppages, Ibrahimovic generously rolling across for Daniel Maldini, but cleared practically off the line.
Gianluca Mancini then received a second yellow card for hauling down Leao on another counter-attack, but Ibrahimovic saw the penalty saved by Rui Patricio.
Milan 3-1 Roma
Giroud pen 8 (M), Messias 17 (M), Abraham 40 (R), Leao 82 (M)
Sent off: Karsdorp 74 (R), Mancini 93 (R)
Saved penalty: Ibrahimovic 94 (M)
Congrats to Pioli and his team, was not expecting them to roll over Roma like this.
“it was clear Tammy Abraham had moved his arm towards the ball and just grazed it”. LOL, yes, it was clear Abraham moved his arm, but he definitely didn’t “graze” it, or the ball direction would change. The ref invented a referee and ruined a supposed good game. Stop being so biased for Milan football-italia!
For those who want to argue about Abraham’s handball, go see the analysis and photos on Corriere dello Sport’s Twitter account!
Romanista – what about the foul on Krunic by Mkhitryan and no penalty given by the ref?
@Romanista
Don’t try to move your arm towards the ball and no VAR will be involved, while the opposite is true.
The decision was borderline, and I personally disagree with penalty – after the win.
During the game – I will take any brain farts from the opposing players and welcome them.
@Romanista. You’re not much of a Romanista if you don’t know that Corriere dello Sport is biased towards AS Roma. Lol.
Roma fans threw firecrackers into the Family section of the stands.
Let’s talk about that disgraceful performance before talking about their team’s poor one on the pitch, eh?
Good win for Milan seeing as the entire backline was out. I thought that this game was going to end in defeat for them, but they showed good resolve today. I still see Inter running away with the title though.
ref was biased but this was roma’s fault,why the hell do i support this team.:(