AC Milan’s final away game of the 2024-25 season ended in defeat as they were beaten 3-1 by Roma at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday night.
It took Roma just a few minutes to take the lead and it came through a familiar foe in Gianluca Mancini, who headed in a corner. Then, Milan went down to 10 men as Santiago Gimenez swung an elbow at the scorer.
Joao Felix equalised for the Rossoneri which surprised the home crowd, but then Leandro Paredes and Bryan Cristante each scored with shots from distance to ensure that the hosts took the three points.
The defeat means that Milan will be without European football for the 2025-26 season, and Sergio Conceicao being sent off late on was symbolic of a dire campaign.
Sergio Conceicao made four changes to the starting line-up from the side that lost to Bologna in the Coppa Italia final. Santiago Gimenez, Joao Felix, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Yunus Musah came in for Luka Jovic, Rafael Leao, Theo Hernandez and Youssouf Fofana.
Before kick-off there was a wonderful display in the Curva Sud for Claudio Ranieri, who was taking charge of his final home game before stepping down as head coach and moving into a managerial role. It seemed to move him to tears, and perfectly demonstrated his attachment to Roma.
It took Roma less than three minutes to break the deadlock, and it came from a corner kick that Soule had won. A delivery whipped towards the near post met the head of Mancini, who directed it on target with Mike Maignan rooted.
Milan worked their first real opening in the 11th minute, when Tijjani Reijnders fed Christian Pulisic whose feed to Joao Felix led to a blocked shot, and the follow-up from Alex Jimenez was blocked too. At the other end, Soule curled a shot just wide from 25 yards out.
Milan continued to grow into the game and perhaps should have equalised when Roma coughed up possession in a bad area and Jimenez drifted infield on his favoured right foot, dragging a shot just wide of the near post from the edge of the box with Svilar stood stationary.
Everything unravelled for Milan in the 20th minute, when Gimenez swung an elbow into the chest of Mancini after being wrestled to the ground inside the box. The referee was called over to the monitor and was rightly shown a straight red card.
The Rossoneri’s first half was summer up by the referee failing to play advantage as Jimenez was about to latch on to a ball in behind down the left side, with the players becoming furious at what they perceived to be poor officiating.
Rather remarkably, Milan got themselves level six minutes before the break. A ball over the top found the run in behind of Jimenez, whose effort from close range was blocked by Svilar but straight into the path of Joao Felix. The Portuguese had the easy task of thumping into an empty net for his second goal since arriving, and his second against Roma.
The early stages of the second half settled into an obvious pattern whereby Roma camped in Milan’s half and the Rossoneri looked for the counter. It almost worked a treat when Felix led a two-on-two break with Loftus-Cheek, though the forward fell over when he got into a shooting position. Not long after, Reijnders fired a snapshot over at the near post.
Saelemaekers will have been desperate to get a goal against his parent club and he wasn’t far away from doing so with a dipping strike just outside the left corner of the box that flashed over the bar.
Three minutes before the hour mark, Roma got themselves back in front through an absolute howitzer of a free-kick. Paredes lined it up 30 yards out and put his foot through it, with Maignan unable to scramble and keep it out at his near post.
A few minutes after going behind, Conceicao made his first changes. Rafael Leao, Luka Jovic and Youssouf Fofana came onto the field, with Loftus-Cheek, Jimenez and Joao Felix coming off.
The enthusiasm of the Olimpico crowd was somewhat dampened when news filtered through that Juventus had gone a goal up against Venezia, thus meaning that Roma dropped out of the top four in the live table.
Things began to get heated in the final 10 minutes, especially when – before a Milan corner – Pavlovic clashed with Mancini inside the box. The Italian, who was on a yellow card, seemed to get away with a shove.
In the 84th minute Conceicao made another substitution with Riccardo Sottil replacing Gabbia, with the switch to a four-man defence following as a result.
Roma put the game to bed with just over three minutes left and it was the former Milan man Cristante who got it. A cross was cleared to him on the edge of the box, and the midfielder provided a thumping finish into the bottom corner leaving Maignan no choice.
I can’t blame musah who has no brain but the most idi*t is the man who spend 18m+ to bring him in to this club and the coach who put him on the field!!
I’ll never understand keeping Musah but letting Saladmaker go. We even paid money for donkey Musah…
If you think Musah was our donkey tonight, well you missed the match.
Are you watching the wrong match?
I don’t understand the hate on Musah.
I don’t hate Musah coz he is innocent, but I fcking curse the man who bring him in and the coach who put him on the field!
It’s called the herd mentality. Musah has been on the sidelines and this team is still playing terribly.
So brainless Gimenez gets himself stupidly sent off, completely ruining any chance the team had to get a positive result from the match, Gabbia is his usual invisible self, needing to be bailed out time and time again by Maignan and his defensive colleagues, Jovic comes on, does nothing, and you’re having a go at Musah? Musah was not worse than any of the rest tonight, but you didn’t call them out did you?
Buddy, jovic and gabbia actually provide something of worth to this team. Stop trying to act like musah does too. He’s useless
Buddy, Jovic & Gabbia are both below average players and both have had terrible seasons with one or 2 decent matches. Gabbia plays in the heart of the worse defense in our history. He is 1/3 of our disaster defense. btw I never proclaimed Musah offers more, did I? He was not worse or better than the rest tonight.
Is Musah your boyfriend or something if youre in love just say it because you sound sad and stupid like a chihuahua
right on cue the village clown shows up to add another brainless comment.
Oh is the little chihuahua dog crying??? Musah would think you’re fat and kick you because he is a horrible football player like your ugliness. Cry to your mom Savio Veganyou have no career
Handicap Milan its hard to Watch….🤮
I’d like to ask from the religious christian Gimenez if the Bible says “strike your opponents to the chest with your elbow as you wish your opponent to strike you”? How fkng stupid has one have to be to do something like that in a match like this?
Beyond idiotic. Fng insane!! As if the 100 cameras on the stadium wouldn’t record it and show in in the VAR booth. Fkng. Idiot.
Roma knew exactly what the wanted and achieved it systematically today, while we had no plan, we didn’t know what to do and we lost in deserving fashion.
When you hit your opponent’s chest on purpose, it’s straight red, all day. No questions. If it was against our players, we would be crying for red… So accept the defeat without lame excuses like Arsenal always cries
We are done this season officially. Big overhaul is needed, starting from upper management. Scaroni, Furlani and Ibra has no place in football management.
Players lost the contact with the coach, so goodbye Sergio.
it only took 2 years…
from good competitive squad become rubbish,, especially with their choice of coaches, who are cheap, yes men and easy scapegoats.
and even with this, some people here are still defending the 💩 owner and his 💩 management
Not playing in Europe can help clear the team and sell all the deadwood and start over. In a perfect world that is.
OLIVER…….THE BEAUTIFUL BALL OVER THE TOP BY PULISIC….
It seems the bias against Pulisic has found new dimensions… When Pulisic plays a perfectly timed perfect ball behind the defensive line, it is mention as an anonymous “ball was played there” sidecomment. Ridiculous. 😀 😀 😀
MUSAH…. VERY ATHLETIC BUT but but SLOW THINKING. JUST CAN T MAKE THAT PASS SOONER, I hope he is not a starter on the NATIONAL TEAM.
Why are you so focused on Musah? there were at least 4 players who were worse tonight, in fact Musah is far from the main culprit for this disaster of a season.
Buddy, We GET IT. You’re just here to defend the Americans, enough. He was useless as ever, end of.
Nope, don’t care about nationality, I’ll leave the shallow comments to you.
Well that’s that, the last tiny bit of hope for any redemption disappears, now confirmed.
Oh, and the topper… we’ll be missing Gimenez for the first two games of next season now too. Fantastic.