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.