Roma fell to a 2-1 defeat at home to the Rossoneri in an exciting end-to-end match that was sealed by a brilliant effort from Ante Rebic just before the hour mark. The Giallorossi fought tooth and nail to enter the top four and go one point above Atalanta but nothing materialised in the end.
Milan sealed a much-needed victory and cut the gap to four points from Inter to stay in the race for the Scudetto, after the Nerazzurri dispatched an unimpressive Genoa side 3-0.
Roma boss Paulo Fonseca spoke to Sky Sports (via MilanNews) about his team’s performance and pointed out that his team were ‘too passive’.
“Milan created chances on our turnovers. We were missing in the first 20 minutes, we entered very passive. Against a team like Milan it is difficult to recover. Then we played our football and created our chances, but the first twenty minutes have been missing,” he said.
Just as the first half approached its climax, Fazio brought down Davide Calabria by stepping on his foot at the edge of the 18-yard-box.
On the penalty incident, Fonseca commented: “I don’t want to talk about the referee. It’s easy to find excuses, there are things I didn’t like but I don’t want to find excuses.”
Roma failed to capitalize on any opportunity other than Jordan Veretout’s 50th-minute finish that brought the capital side back on terms, with Fonseca saying his team were wasteful.
He added: “We lost a lot of balls at the exit, we allowed Milan to go out quickly and recover balls near our area. We were passive in defence. In the second half we risked, we were losing. It’s normal to have more space. Not that we did well in the first half in the first phase of construction. We lost a lot of balls.”
Milan’s offensive abilities showed sign of life as the Portuguese manager’s made it clear that his men suffered clearly from defensive problems in facing the likes of Rebic and company.
“We know that when they recover the ball they are very close to going out. Rebic has carried the ball well. We cannot make mistakes in this moment of the game.”
On the problems against the big players: “There is always something missing against the big players, it’s always something in the details. It’s a defensive question,” Fonseca said.
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