AC Milan 2-2 AS Roma: Late goals mean Rossoneri settle for a point

By Euan Burns -

AC Milan threw away two points at San Siro on Sunday night as they gave away two later goals to draw 2-2 with AS Roma.

The Rossoneri were leading 2-0 thanks to goals from Pierre Kalulu and Tommaso Pobega with less than five minutes of the 90 remaining when Roger Ibanez and Tammy Abraham struck to secure a point for the Giallorossi.

The opening exchanges were lacking in any serious action but Milan certainly looked the more menacing. There was a concerted effort to get the ball to Leao at every given opportunity.

Roma were able to move through the midfield very swiftly at times in the opening 25 minutes but they lacked the cohesion to really hurt Milan at the back. Nicolo Zaniolo’s urgent need to shoot often led to moves breaking down.

When Roma did push forward, it left lots of room on the break for Leao to run into with his long strides. He clearly had the pace advantage on the Roma defence and midfield.

The first genuine strike on goal came just before the half-hour mark when Milan worked the ball forward with purpose and Theo Hernandez found Brahim Diaz on the edge of the box. His powerful shot forced a save out of Rui Patricio and a corner.

That corner proved to be crucial as it led to Milan taking the lead. The corner was swung in by Sandro Tonali and it was Kalulu who managed to get his head on it in a fairly acrobatic style to make it 1-0.

The second half began at a good pace and Milan looked like they were much more interested in building on the lead rather than protecting it. Olivier Giroud had his first clear chance of the game in the 53rd minute but his header was straight at Patricio.

The game began to drift as Milan were able to move the ball around very easily, but were not creating much in the way of chances. Roma were finding it very hard to get forward in any meaningful manner.

There were echoes of the Salernitana game, in the sense that Milan were very comfortable but had a hint of complacency about their game.

The game was certainly drifting, but the introduction of Tommaso Pobega off of the bench by Pioli added a new level of intensity to the game and he was not giving any Roma player a second on the ball.

He got his reward with just under 10 minutes to play when Leao burst forward down the left and moved inside along the edge of the box. He spotted the run of Pobega and slid it into the Italian’s path who finished superbly past Patricio to make it 2-0.

There was a moment with a few minutes to play where it seemed that Abraham may get his head on the ball but Ciprian Tatarusanu, who did not put a foot wrong all evening, rushed out and claimed it superbly.

As quickly as things became comfortable, they swiftly got uncomfortable. Roma won a corner which was swung in from the right and Roger Ibanez rose higher than anyone to power a header into the back of the net in the 87th minute.

The Giallorossi threw Andrea Belotti onto the pitch in place of Gianluca Mancini for the final few minutes as they tried to scrape a point.

And scrape a point they did. Aster Vranckx gave away a silly free kick on the wing and Lorenzo Pellegrino swung it into the box. Nemanja Matic had a free header which Tatarusanu saved superbly, but Abraham was there to smash it in for 2-2.

The dropped points mean that Milan now sit seven points behind Napoli who are at the top of Serie A.

Tags AC Milan AS Roma Jose Mourinho Pierre Kalulu Roger Ibanez Stefano Pioli Tammy Abraham Tommaso Pobega

51 Comments

    1. Was not a foul by any means, but the ref also missed the rulebook penalty while standing 10 meters from alexis so not surprised.

          1. “You can complain all you want, it’s a fact.”

            LOL. Who’s the one complaining here? If I’m saying it’s not a foul, somehow I’m the one complaining? ROFL. 😀 😀 😀

  1. What a stupid substitions!! I have never questioned Pioli but this time….
    He really though game was over ? He just destroyed all the work done by team. Shame

  2. Calabria – Saelemaekers right flank extremely strong, very happy to see Alexis keeps it simple as he has been doing past few games. Did he finally learn?

    Giroud was absolutely worthless again, leading to a lot of ball loss due to blind passing. Furthermore, he did not dive into spaces. Does not seem to be fully present coming back from WC? He was also truly bad against Salernitana.

    If I check the rulebook, this was definitely a penalty. Defender widening body with arms instead of putting them to his side or back. How did ref miss this? Regardless, we can’t concede so stupidly on a set piece. Heaps of space.

    In fact, how did we let them attack. Roma were not present for 80 minutes. Then Pioli’s defensive subs come on and we lose 2 points? Juventus is very likely to win the Scudetto now, as noone expects Napoli to hold on till the end. They generally choke after christmas. Meanwhile we can’t seem to kill a game and panic after literally controlling a game with confidence.

      1. I mean the rulebook is pretty clear. You could nuance that Saelemaekers was looking for the hand, but then the rulebook is pretty clear that his hands shouldn’t be there anyway.

        1. Yes. Saelemaekers aimed for the hand and and to be honest, it wasn’t in a “unnatural” position either. He could do nothing before the ball had already bounced off his arm.

          1. It was unnatural.. that’s why our pundits were also calling for a penalty (eleven sports / DAZN). He was basically in a goalkeeper stance.

  3. Couple of subs I dont understand, like gabbia coming on and giroud coming off. Also dont know why we switch to to 532 to end up conceding 2 goals when the 4231 was working as a result of them putting 0 shots on target. Tata should not play any more game Vasquez should satrt against Torino.

  4. Another Pioli and Milan disasterclass. Bravo. Napoli could lose every game for the rest of the season and we still wouldn’t be able to win the Scudetto.

    Bad substitutions from Piolo (literally brought on Gabbia and still conceded from two crosses LOL), the front three (Diaz, Leao and Giroud) were all awful today, terrible defending from set-pieces and amateur mistakes from the subs. We dropped points against the worst team to visit San Siro so far this season, it should be a crime to lose points to this team. Roma were lost for 87 minutes today. This is basically a loss for me.

  5. great overlaps and passes throughout a great deal of the match and up untill their first goal this felt pretty safe. disgracefull that we threw this one away. rather shocked to be honest that we didnt win, propably as everyone.
    not gonna comment anymore on this one for today as im silmply too pissed to reply.

      1. yeah it was an absolutely crap perfomance in the last minutes and its a shame because in the majority of the match we actually ran the show and played well so an extra painfull draw,

        Thanks but i always sleep badly regardless of football matches. Still pretty furious though about the result. so whent out and goit hammered. and has first returneed hom now 😀

        When that is said pioli has my support and anyone asking for his head really should take an extra look at what he achieved with us and accept he is the best for the job even if he messed up the last minutes of yesterdays march.

  6. Coach problem
    Your leading 2:0 why remove Striker and bring in Defender, 5 defenders for leading side is to invite offensive team.
    Very stupid coach.

  7. How many times have we conceded from cross to header goals? It’s the problem from giornata 1 and it seems that we still haven’t come with a solution.

  8. I wonder Pioli is capable of this he subs in Pobega that puts us 2-0 with 10 minutes to go and then makes one sub that cost us 2 points!WTF MAN if you are 2 goals up with 10 minutes to go it does not mather if you one sub or ten to make dont touch team that is winning the game!

  9. Pioli and Cardinale, both dudes are on fire. Especially Cardinale.

    IF Cardinale dont find money for Ac, it is better for him and company to start swimmimg Atlantic right now. They dont need to be here if they cant manage in next mercato buy striker, right winger and attacking miedfilder. We are the only club in Italy without 3 players in the squad.
    We cant write about Pioli and our BENCH, When still we dont have 3 suitable spots of first team.

    1. I really don’t get this criticisim against Diaz and Saelemaekers. Especially now they’re playing so well.

      Which RW or AM you gonna get? I don’t see anyone twice as good under 60 million. Don’t even say Ziyech because he can be just as much of a headless chicken as Saelemaekers except he’d cost double per month.

  10. Stupid dumb coaching. Roma fail all game with a 5 man defense so Pioli decides to switch to a 5-3-2. Wtf has Milan ever used this formation.
    Also can someone explain why that wasn’t a penalty? His hand was extended and away from his body. Since VAR I don’t understand the rules anymore.

    1. By the rulebook, you should keep your hands by the side of your body or behind your body. So no reason to assume this should not be a penalty.

      Our Belgian pundits were also surprised the ref didn’t see it. His hands were 40cm away from his body, actively using them to widen the blocking range.

      1. The ref was present near the accident, so he got his interpretation fixed. The weird thing was that no one from VAR officials tried to call this one.

        1. Irrati was the chief of VAR, he was never gonna review that for Milan, was 100% a penalty and it has flown under the radar because of how the last 10 minutes played out in the match.

  11. Ok so maybe leao can be more of a game changer than Giroud, but literally the only ways Roma score goals are set pieces, Abraham running, or worldies from outside the box. Leao is very good, but CANNOT defend anything. Giroud is actually v good at defending set pieces.
    I do think CDK will become great but this is just not his kind of game, shouldn’t have seen the pitch if he wasn’t on by the 60th minute.

  12. Man this is unfortunate 🙁

    Milan played well and dominated the whole match but got punished because bad defend at set piece 🤦‍♂️

  13. Gutted… gutted.
    Can’t lose a 2 goal lead in 6 minutes.
    I don’t know guys… what will be a successful season for us? Beating Spurs?
    Coppa? I think we can really beat Spurs cause they aren’t great at all but Pioli against Conte always loses.
    If we beat Spurs then that’ll probably be the end champions league wise.
    So I think now our target is top 4🤷🏿‍♂️
    I’m defeated… Scudetto wise I don’t think we have the firepower to take us all the way.
    You guys tell me. But top 4 looks like our realistic target and then pray to God that we get investments into the squad.
    Still can’t believe we lost to a team that played the last 10 minutes… but yeah I guess it is what it is

    1. Yep. The best way to defend a lead is by continuing to play and keeping possession. Instead they gifted the ball as soon as possible to Roma and stopped playing. Awful. Absolutely awful.

  14. Well, those late mins freak out keeps happening game after game. Pioli hasnt fixed that yet. Also, all bench players that came on besides pobega, came on like they were going to the movies, especially cdk and gabbia. Cdk definetly forgot how the game is played. Once we get some injured players back, sorry to say, but cdk should be the last guy to be called upon. Huge disappointment. The guy has no blood in him. All of you that say he is young. He is not that young to not be able to have at least 1 flash of his skills.

    1. This is the problem with football in Italy, one mistake and you are out. Sure he had a bad game but experiences like these are necessary for him to become the player we need him to be in the future.

      1. As I said in above comment he shouldn’t have seen the pitch today. He will become good but somehow Diaz has more physicality than him, and a different mentality.

      2. As I said in above comment he shouldn’t have seen the pitch today. He will become good but somehow Diaz has more physicality than him, and a different mentality.

      3. One mistake? Does anyone even remember anything else by CDK than mistakes? He hasn’t been even decent for months now. One mistake? How about a one successful thing for a chance? Like score a goal, give an assist? Or at least take the ball away from the opponent? Nope. Nothing. He contributes nothing to the team ATM.

        1. Last game he was really good? His first two games he showed insane vision.

          It’s why everyone is so confused as to what happened.

          1. First two games was half a season ago. He wasn’t “really good” in last game. He was decent. Nothing more. A good game is when he can create a scoring chance or two. We’re not seeing those. Not since the couple of first matches.

  15. I am absolutely sick with that result.
    I love milan and Italian football but that match showcased the worst of both!

    If milan won 2-0 people would be saying how great they played, reality is Roma offered absolutely ZERO!!

    Milan again couldn’t finish a team that was dead. Our attack was toothless. Giroud scores nice goals and in big games but he also is not consistent and cant run. How good would this team be with a dynamic striker?

    Also, set pieces? Wtf? Can we please hire somebody who can teach defending these!!

    After catching up points on Napoli, we are now behind Juve.

    Really just sickened!

    1. Name a coach who could get better results with this material in use? No one really. Crappy players on the bench and even the starting 11 isn’t good enough.

      Instead of changing Pioli, they should buy a backup-Bennacer. Once Benny goes off, so does the whole team apparently.

      1. Totally. We need a backup Bennacer, a backup Leao, a starting RW, a young starting striker, a backup Theo, a starting CB taller than 6’2″. We’re missing a lot. I’m actually kind of shocked we are where we are in the table given the overall missing pieces and almost non-existent depth. We’re tied for 2nd place in the league. What other club has fired its coach for being 2nd place in the league even before the halfway point of the season? Some people are just crazy.

  16. I’ve seen hundreds of games where defensive players are brought on to close the game and secure the result. It’s not a strange concept. Have you not seen what Juventus had been doing? After an atrocious start they’re winning games 1-0 and haven’t conceded in like 8 games. Defence wins championships.

    Two issues were evident yesterday: we don’t have height, which has been a problem for the last view seasons, CB Kalulu for example is under 6 ft tall; and we don’t have experience. How many minutes has Vranckx played? We got unlucky yesterday. This has been Napoli’s scudetto to lose from the first month. So we need to keep things in perspective.

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