AC Milan have given themselves it all to do in the return fixture as they lost the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final tie 1-0 against Roma at San Siro on Thursday night.
The only goal of the game came early on in the first half as Gianluca Mancini was given the freedom of the 18-yard box to head home a corner having lost his marker.
From there Roma would frustrate Milan, limiting them mostly to shots from outside the box, but Olivier Giroud really should have levelled the tie late in the game when he rattled the crossbar from about six yards out.
It is a big blow for the Rossoneri who have seen their seven-game winning run ended, and now they must win at the Stadio Olimpico in one week if they are to stand a chance of reaching the semi-finals.
Stefano Pioli made three changes to the starting line-up compared to the team that beat Lecce last weekend, with Malick Thiaw coming in for the suspended Fikayo Tomori, Ismael Bennacer joining Tijjani Reijnders in midfield and Ruben Loftus-Cheek returning as the playmaker with Samuel Chukwueze dropping to the bench.
Roma had plenty of the possession in the early stages without really managing to threaten, and Svilar was the first goalkeeper called into action inside the ninth minute when a low shot from the edge of the box from Reijnders was fired at pace and drew a parry.
Lukaku’s hold-up play was what Roma looked for early on, and he did brilliantly to work the ball wide to El Shaarawy who tried to put Pellegrini through on goal yet Davide Calabria made an outstanding last-ditch tackle.
Maignan was called into action for the first time on 15 minutes and the save he produced was an incredible leaping stop to deny an El Shaarawy shot from a Lukaku cut-back that had deflected and was dipping under the bar. The replay showed that Belgian was offside.
That would mean that there was some controversy when the away side took the lead from the resulting corner. It couldn’t have been easier for Mancini to nod the ball inside the far post as he got away from his man and was found six yards out, with Pioli furious that the prior offside hadn’t been given.
Milan responded with a period of pressure, and there were two consecutive scrambles inside the box from corners. The first saw Lukaku clear a Giroud header off the line, and then Smalling provided a crucial intervention deep inside his own box.
El Shaarawy was nearly the provider of a second goal for the Giallorossi when he whipped a low cross in from the right side that was destined to meet Lukaku at the near post but Gabbia’s sliding block intervened and Maignan claimed the loose ball as it was slowly rolling towards the line.
Svilar made an excellent diving low stop to deny Milan in what was the last opportunity of the first half, with Reijnders lining up a first time shot from just outside the edge of the box that was heading inside the near post but was well stopped.
The opening quarter of an hour of the second half went exactly as Roma would have hoped, with them dominating the possession as Milan failed to press effectively. Reijnders had a tame attempt saved, and at the other end Dybala had a weak attempt gathered too when both should have done better.
Just before the hour mark Pioli made his first change as Bennacer was withdrawn for Yacine Adli, who entered the midfield control room.
In a stop-start second half Theo Hernandez had the next chance as he rose highest at the far post to head a corner towards goal, yet it was a few yards wide.
A few minutes later Reijnders again shot from that area of about 20 yards out and again Svilar just about managed to parry it away, and then the Roma goalkeeper tipped what looked like a cross from Adli over the bar via the bar as it looked to be creeping in.
Two more changes came for Milan in the 78th minute, with Samuel Chukwueze and Noah Okafor coming on for Pulisic and Leao.
Milan missed an absolutely huge chance to take a 1-1 scoreline to the capital, with Giroud the culprit. Chukwueze did fantastically to beat three men to the byline and pull back to the Frenchman who was all alone inside the box and yet he hammered his shot against the top of the crossbar when it seemed harder to miss.
