AC Milan booked their place in the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia as they ran out 3-1 winners against Roma in an entertaining game at San Siro on Wednesday night.
Milan did the bulk of the work in the first half as Tammy Abraham netted a brace against his parent club, the first with a towering header and the second a composed one-on-one finish.
Artem Dovbyk did score early in the second half off the bench to reduce the deficit, but new signings Santiago Gimenez and Joao Felix linked up after coming on to restore the two-goal lead.
The result means that Milan have a two-legged semi-final to come against the winner of Inter versus Lazio, which will be played at the end of this month.
Head coach Sergio Conceicao made two changes to the line-up that drew with Inter on Sunday, as Youssouf Fofana replaced the now departed Ismael Bennacer in midfield, while Alex Jimenez started over the fatigued Rafael Leao on the left wing.
There weren’t many chances in the opening few minutes but there was no shortage of crunching challenges, with Manu Kone and Christian Pulisic taking rough tumbles just a few seconds apart after some firm but fair challenges from opponents.
The first opportunity of the game went o the away side and it came from the first corner. Saelemaekers’ delivery found the unmarked head of Dybala, who didn’t really test Mike Maignan.
As Milan began to get on top in the game, they took the lead through the Roma loanee Tammy Abraham. A ferocious shot from Tijjani Reijnders was only parried to Theo Hernandez, whose cross to the back post was perfectly headed back across goal by Abraham and nestled into the net.
Roma set about in search of a rapid leveller, and they weren’t too far off being gifted one by Maignan. Shomurodov collected a nice flick from Dybala on the edge of the box and hit a rising central shot that the French goalkeeper seemed to flap at while trying to catch, though thankfully it landed on the roof of the net.
Milan missed a huge chance to double their lead on the counter-attack from a Roma corner. A routine didn’t work out and it allowed Jimenez to blitz forward, creating an eight-on-three break, yet Theo somehow stepped on the ball right at the decisive moment on the edge of the opposition box.
The chances continued to fly in and Milan needed the woodwork to deny their visitors just as they did three times on Sunday night, with Pisilli having a glancing header denied by the crossbar. Moments later, Maignan made a good low stop to tip Dybala’s stinging drive away.
Tomori continued his excellent performance in the derby by producing two marvellous interventions towards the end of the first half, the first on Shomurodov and the second on Dybala.
After withstanding a few waves of Roma attack, Milan got the second goal a few minutes before the break and again it came through Abraham. The move started with a sweeping pass from Musah to get out of the press, then Theo took it forward and slipped in the English forward, who finished confidently for his second of the night.
Roma brought Dovbyk and Pellegrini off the bench at the break to try and change their fortunes, but it was the Diavolo who started the second half on the front foot. A perfect cross from Pulisic almost found Jimenez at the far post, but Angelino made an excellent diving stop, then from the resulting corner Kyle Walker’s header was tipped onto the bar.
Just eight minutes into the second half, Roma halved the deficit and it was the substitute Dovbyk who got it. Angelino’s driven cross-shot from the left side took a deflection off Walker through a crowd and fell to the Ukrainian at the far post who tapped in from close range.
Just before the hour mark, Conceicao made his first changes of the game and it saw two January signings make their Milan debuts. Santiago Gimenez replaced Abraham, while Joao Felix took the place of Pulisic.
Felix and Gimenez made an instant impact, linking up with each other and their new team-mates very well, with the Mexican almost collecting a header from the Portuguese and bursting through on goal.
Jimenez had the ball in the net after a nice feed from Gimenez was tucked away past the onrushing Svilar, yet the offside flag rightly went up as he had strayed off. Not long after, Rafael Leao came on for Jimenez.
In the 72nd minute, Milan got what was probably a goal Conceicao will have dreamt in his head the night before the game from his two new attacking additions. Functioning brilliantly as a front two, Gimenez dropped deeper and played a wonderful through ball to Felix, who timed his run to perfection and lifted the ball over Svilar with a cheeky dink.
Roma thought they had got themselves straight back into the game again when a cross was turned into his own net by Reijnders under pressure from Pellegrini, though VAR intervened because Dovbyk had strayed offside in the build-up.
Man this Felix.. Might just be something (or someone) that has been missing in this Milan for so long. And for Conceicao, let him cook.
Indeed. FINALLY some creativity and brilliant, unexpected passes. It has been waaaaaaaaaaaay too long since we’ve last seen those.
And we can tell that his playing style and traits would suit in Serie A really really well.
For being this early he looked very impressive, Gimenez maybe a bit to eager, its gonna be interesting might just be the right league and team for Felix, with that we can hope we manage to get him in the summer
Kudos for Conceicao as well to directly fielded all the debutants (except the injured Bondo). Wasting no time, no adaptation balderdash we often saw in the past.
They wouldn’t see the pitch until May if this was under pioli🤣
I know, right?? Lol. When the management has worked hard to bring in players, the only thing the coach gotta do is to integrate ‘em effectively and efficiently.
May 2026, right ?!?!
Joao Felix. He has a cool name too… looks brilliant. Lets see more!
Perfect replacement for Leao. This guy more liquid at the front than leao. This is Milan need
On the last match, Felix operated thru the center, more like an AM on our traditional 4231 with a more free role. So I can’t see why they can exist together.
Hard not to get excited, gotta remember it’s just a weakened Roma, but it’s till a lot better looking than we’ve been. Gotta try and keep clean sheets now, too. That would top off the performance
So this is how it feels to have depth? Substituting Pulisic for Felix and Gimenez felt so good. One top player goes out, two come in. Great result by the boys. Well done
Yeah and then bringing Leão off the bench as well… Such a weird feeling to have this much quality. We have so many fixtures coming up, we’re going to need it.
Great job. Gotta be a bit more tidy in defense, but overall a very solid performance. And I’m happy for both Abraham and Joao Felix. Abraham has had a season of ups and downs, and hopefully he’s only on the up now.
And I promise not to mix up Gimenez and Jimenez anymore lol.
They wanted to sell Tomori and Pavlo smh. Felix will shake our attack up. He just knows when to take it forward he can operate in such little space knows how to pass perfectly on the wing and he can shoot. He will make Rjinders a lot better too trust me they compliment each other in their playing styles. I’m excited but humble let’s see how it goes. Also who ever hated on Tammy all the time. He never got service like today.
Exactly. They finally fed him today. He’s always been a striker who thrives on crosses and through balls. If they continue to give him crossed, he can get on a good scoring run.
I said before and I’m saying again bring it no matter inter or Napoli or juventus just anything in serie a then we can beat we do have so many talents in our squad
I absolutely agree with @fabo, tomori and Pavlo were really underestimated. Felix? Fantastic game today, I hope he keeps it up. And Abraham has always been a good striker, I feel like we just have wingers which overshadow and isolate the strikers in Milan. But it was a good game today.
——————-Giminez—————
——-Leao——-J Felix—-—Pulisic
———-TJ—————-Musah——-
————-—Fofana—————
Theo——Pavlo——-Tomori——Walker
Nice.
Err….who’ll tell him???!!😂😂😂
Let he realises it himself lol. Maybe add also Gabbia between Pavlo and Tomori
lol it works for me
🤣🤣🤣
Always nice with a extra player😂
It’s cool we applied for that exemption for an additional player lol
Even Fifa won’t Let you play 12 players on the field lol
With this squad we dont need keeper. Sell maignan for 50mio 😭
Fofana has invented new posisition. DMKeeper
Who needs a goolie?
Agree. Football should remove keeper from the game. Just like american football or basket. Will be more entertaining
Pavlo and Tomori, just wow, I mean Milan has 4 starting quality CB’s if this level of performance keeps up. I also cannot praise how good Kyle Walker has been, I seriously doubt these offside goals are just happening for no reason. The backline has just clicked in the last two games. Tomori my lord, he has suddenly gotten himself playing like he did 2 seasons ago. Then again Kyle Walker is sniffing out dangerous passes and covering the ground at such a high pase. He seriously doesn’t need to go up and down the wings for Milan, he just needs to cover the defensive side of things and the rest can wait.
There were plenty of tackles the CB’s made that were called as fouls but they were not fouls as well. But I am just stunned that it got this much better in the last two games.
Both of our CBs has been great for two matches in a row. From the last derby it’s reported that Fik was the loudest on the pitch. As he’s fluent in Italian, acted like a bridge for his new teammates. Maybe that kind of responsibility makes the better of him.
And yes, our defense line has been very tidy as well. Well, it’s freakin Walker we’re talking about, someone who has well above average defensive IQ. Something that can’t be said to Emerson:
Pavlovic started being great 4-5 matches ago. 🙂
:))
We have so much power and creativity upront know, that Theo and and Walker can concentrate on their deffensive duties. Theo still made two assists though. And walker is just class!
“And walker is just class!”
The experts here said he’s too old and slow. 🙂
Finally maybe Milan got the leao replacement. Felix more liquid at the front. Thats Milan wanted.. I guess