AC Milan secured a very important three points at San Siro on Sunday night, beating Roma 3-1 to consolidate third place.
Milan took the lead early on through Yacine Adli, who scored his first goal for the club with a lovely shimmy and a well-guided shot inside the bottom corner.
The advantage was doubled through Olivier Giroud early in the second half, as he had the simple task of heading in from close range after Simon Kjaer’s nod back across goal.
Leandro Paredes halved the deficit when he converted a penalty to set up another nervy finish, but Theo Hernandez’s rocket in off the crossbar in the final 10 minutes sealed the win.
The result means that the Rossoneri took advantage of Bologna and Fiorentina’s slip-ups earlier in the day, which pads the lead to nine points to fifth place.
Stefano Pioli made changes from the team that lost to Atalanta in midweek, with Simon Kjaer, Yacine Adli and Olivier Giroud all coming into the side, with Noah Okafor returning to the bench.
Milan had the first shot of the game inside the first 38 seconds as Giroud latched on to a bouncing ball in behind and fired a low angled drive straight into the hands of Svilar.
In the 10th minute, the Rossoneri took the lead and it was a special moment for Adli. Milan retained the ball well with some short passes inside Roma’s half, and he sold his man with an excellent dummy before firing into the bottom corner with a pinpoint left-footed shot.
Tempers flared not long after the game between Theo Hernandez and Cristante after the full-back was bodychecked by the former Milan player and they had a square up.
Milan had a couple of good opportunities to double their advantage inside a couple of minutes. Firstly, a surging run infield from Christian Pulisic ended with him shooting towards the top right corner and Svilar caught it well, then Theo grazed the crossbar with a cross-shot from a narrow angle.
Up the other end Roma went in search of an equaliser, and some great work from Cristante found Celik inside the box whose angled drive takes a deflection and Maignan had to fingertip it for a corner, though it was going wide.
The game became very open around the half-hour mark, and a Theo cut-back inside the box seemed to be targeted by both Giroud and Pulisic, but it was the latter who saw a shot deflected wide off Llorente.
The chances continued to come thick and fast, with shots from outside the box from Paredes and Spinazzola – one going over and one saved – coming either side of Loftus-Cheek being found in space inside the box and going down instead of shooting.
Milan had the first couple of chances in the second half, with Reijnders and Loftus-Cheek both loading up shots from 20 yards that were wide of the target.
The Rossoneri really should have made it 2-0 when an excellent free-kick from the left side met the head of Matteo Gabbia who was unmarked deep inside the box, yet he somehow headed it back across goal and wide.
In the 56th minute it did become a two-goal advantage. A corner was taken short and crossed to the back post where Kjaer knocked it back over for Giroud’s header from point-blank range at the far stick. Cristante claims his shirt was pulled by Pulisic in the process, yet replays showed it was soft.
Calabria went from almost hero to zero in the matter of a couple of minutes. After dragging a shot wide of the near post he conceded a penalty at the other end for a clumsy foul on Pellegrini, and Paredes converted from the spot as he hammered it down the middle.
Pellegrini was causing Milan some problems after coming off the bench, with a free-kick from just outside the edge of the box deflecting wide and then a shot from a similar range being clutched by Maignan.
Pioli’s first two changes saw Noah Okafor and Yunus Musah introduced with Leao and Pulisic making way.
In the 84th minute, Milan did finally put the game to bed and Giroud was again involved. A ball was played into the path of Giroud whose perfect backheel flick in behind was charged onto by Theo Hernandez, and he laced a first-time shot in off the crossbar that Svilar had no chance with.
Musah nearly scored what would have been a fantastic solo goal to add some gloss to the scoreline in the final minute of normal time, snaking past multiple opponents before stabbing a shot onto the base of the post.
