AC Milan moved back top of the Serie A table as they beat Lazio 1-0 on Saturday night, before Napoli won away against Roma.
Just like the win against Inter in the round prior, Milan had to keep out some early pressure from the away side, with Mike Maignan making a brilliant save early on to deny Mario Gila. The Rossoneri grew into the game, and took the lead earlier in the second half through Rafael Leao.
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In the dying moments there was some controversy as a penalty appeal from Lazio for handball went to a VAR review, but the referee ended up giving a foul against the visiting side. In the end, Milan hung on for a 1-0 victory that moves them top again.
A habit is developing of winning the big games by a nose in typical Massimiliano Allegri ‘corto muso’ fashion. Bologna, Napoli, Roma, Inter and now Lazio were all one-goal victories, and Rohit Rajeev has analysed the latest.
A more aggressive approach
Massimiliano Allegri opted to make just one change to the starting line-up that won the derby on Sunday night, and it was a forced one. Christian Pulisic missed out due to a bit of muscle fatigue, and his place in the front two was taken by Christopher Nkunku.
Milan pressed Lazio unusually high, with Allegri pushing six players into Lazio’s defensive third. But why did they do this?
Opta’s data explains it: Lazio under Sarri are a passive mid-block team, avoiding aggressive pressing to limit exposure to counters. They also concede very few fast counter-attacks, meaning Milan couldn’t simply sit deep and wait to break.
So Allegri’s approach was logical: press high, win the ball early, and force Lazio into uncomfortable zones. If Milan wanted space, they had to create it by squeezing Sarri’s side, not by inviting pressure.
As we can see, Milan pushed up with a high press and an aggressive defensive line, while Lazio sat deep, trying to absorb the pressure.
How Milan broke Lazio’s press
Lazio set up in a 4-4-2 and pressed through the central channels, with Dia and Isaksen stepping up to pressure Milan’s centre-backs.
Milan used Maignan as a third centre-back, immediately outnumbering Lazio’s two forwards. That forced Guendouzi to step up and compensate, but Rabiot adjusted his angle perfectly, receiving the ball and combining with Bartesaghi for a quick one-two.
From there Milan launched a fast break, with Leao bursting in behind the Lazio defence, a move that eventually ended with Saelemaekers firing a weak shot.
Allegri’s relationist principles were on full display here, with Modric, Rabiot and Fofana fluidly rotating positions in the buildup to unsettle Lazio’s structure.
How the goal came
In the second half, Milan unlocked Lazio with a clean third-man combination. Tomori burst forward, linked with Fofana and Saelemaekers, but his final cross was cleared by the Lazio defence.
A second bite of the cherry yielded the desired results, as this time the English centre-back laid it on a plate. After the game, there was unanimous confirmation that this was very much something worked on at Milanello.
Leao stated after the game: “The goal-scoring move? We often practice it in training with Tomori. It worked beautifully, and Allegri will have watched it with a smile as Rafa finally made the movement that a natural No.9 would.
Il gol di Leão in #MilanLazio 🏄♂️ pic.twitter.com/Dw8m8EYywv
— Lega Serie A (@SerieA) November 30, 2025
As expected, Milan sat back after scoring, choosing to absorb Lazio’s pressure while Sarri’s side pushed higher up the pitch in search of an equaliser.
Lazio committed five men forward in attack, overloading Milan’s right side. With Zaccagni drifting inside and Bašić plus Pellegrini attacking aggressively down the left, Lazio repeatedly tried to stretch Milan’s defensive shape.
Dead ball contrast
A clear contrast in set-piece preparation was visible. Milan defend with a deeper line, giving the opposition more room but prioritising blocking shots and headers.
Lazio, meanwhile, push a higher line, aiming to catch attackers offside and create space for Provedel to step out and claim.
The data
Since Lazio concede very few counter-attacks, Milan had to adapt. Instead of relying on transitions, they focused on passing manoeuvres, creating space through circulation, rotations, and movement rather than pure speed in transition.
Lazio’s press barely registers. They win very few balls high up the pitch, making it easier for Milan to build patiently and control the game.
Bartesaghi didn’t just shine, he ran the show. Voted Player of the Match by Milan fans, and deservedly so, after covering the most distance of any Rossoneri player against Lazio.
Very happy to be top of the table, but people need to be a little more realistic about our performances, which for the most part have not been great. If not for some ridiculous performances by Maignan and some luck from the woodwork, Milan could very easily be 6th or 7th in the table right now.
When your keeper is winning MOTM time and time again that is not a good sign that the team is performing well.
facts, but at the same time the structure of the team has limited chance creation and instead allowed these players to excel where they can best excel. The team is failing in getting goals from the midfielders and the choices of forwards are not just limited they are also not effective.
I would be daring and try and get Kean from Fiorentina and be creative and find another striker who is willing to come for 6 months as a stop gap.
You can say the same thing about almost every team out there.
Arsenal is 1st in the EPL because of corner kick and set piece goals, outside of that where would they be on the table.
Napoli’s goalkeeper saved penalties in back to back games and I think they had a last second win vs Cagliari. They are leveled with Milan on points. How’s there performances been?
Maignan does what he is supposed to and paid to do, there is nothing ridiculous about it. Outside of that early save vs Lazio he had nothing else to do the rest of the game.
Only inter has created and missed more clear cut goalscoring chances than Milan.
Not to mention that Milan has never had all there players healthy to play at the same time.
the issue is the context with how Milan is winning these games and in these last few games Mike is the MOTM. It isn’t wrong to give him that title, but it proves one thing and that is Milan lacks a serious offensive bite to them. They need attackers who are effective, the team lost Tiji and now do not have Pulisic. The new guys and the old guys are under performing in the offensive side of things and that is obvious from these games.
Of course Mike is supposed to stop the ball from going in, but he cannot be the MOTM if Milan scored 3 goals and created much more as well. The MOTM title would have gone to them while still recognising that Mike has been amazing.
Even if there are players who are injured, Milan still has offensive players and they are not scoring or creating chances either as a team or individually for themselves. It is a serious problem if this team and fan base wants to see the club win the title.
Mike Maignan was MOTM only in 1 game this season and it was the derby vs Inter, thats it, what last few games? One save vs Lazio in the 1st few minutes of the game doesn’t make him MOTM. They played 100 minutes.
There was an article last week where it said that this season Maignan takes on less shots and has less work. Just because Milan doesn’t win 3-0 doesn’t mean that it was thanks to Maignan.
Milan have played each team in the top 9 in the standings except Como. They have given up only 1 goal vs those teams, no losses. Its not like they are 1st in the standings because they have played vs relegation teams.
Only inter, napoli and bologna have scored more goals than Milan. Only Roma and Como have given up less goals than Milan.
This is how all Allegri teams perform. They score enough to win games.
This.
I’d like to add that if we’re gonna “deduct points” because Maignan bailed us out vs Roma, Inter and Lazio, why not also mention the games we draw because of flukes or our own players missing sitters and we “should have had more points”.
I think that if Milan had a better striker, or if our strikers did perform better, we would have more chances. Right now teams understood that they don’t have to fully commit marking against Giménez and Nkunku.
On the note about Arsenal, frankly I wouldn’t mind if we also become a set piece merchants.
I’m talking about results vs performances. Yes, Napoli has also been very lucky in some of their wins, but let’s not fool ourselves. WIthout the penalty save vs Dybala, the multiple saves vs Inter and the incredible save he made vs Lazio we are probably 6th or 7th right now. And everyone would be screaming for Allegri’s head.
“Maignan does what he is supposed to and paid to do,”
These are not ordinary saves he has been making. Some of these save have been extraordinary, and saving Calhanoglu and Dybala penalties is not expected. He was not making these saves last season, and yes the defensive approach of Allegri has certainly helped, but Maignan has also made this defense look better than it has played on multiple occasions. The offense , especially without Pulisic has not created much.
Let’s be honest, we were lucky to beat Inter, lucky we weren’t down 3-0 in the first half against Roma, got lucky just to draw with Pisa and I would say lucky to get a win vs Fiorentina. I would not say we are outplaying these teams. The results are a great and I hope they continue but unless the performances get better it’s going to be tough.
Milan was also unlucky not to win vs Juventus and have extra 2 points. Pulisic missed a penalty and Leao missed 2 clear goal scoring chances.
Milan was also unlucky not to win vs Parma. Both Saelemaekers and Pulisic missed 1v1 with the goalkeeper.
You win some games you are not supposed to and you lose points in games where you deserved to win all 3.
Everything evens out at the end.
The results are the most important thing. You don’t get extra points for performance. And its not like any other team in serie A is better performance wise. Thats why 1 thru 7 are separated by only 5 points.
So u are expecting tiki taka football and ok to not win? Bro, points is what matters. Inter of 2010 wasn’t the best in terms of play on the pitch but they beat Barca who played tiki taka. Ppl remember the winning team more than how a team plays.
Surely there is something in between tiki taka and parking the bus for 90 minutes. And let’s not forget sports is suppose to be entertainment. One minute of excitement and 89 minutes of ugly , boring , everyone behind the ball football is not very entertaining to watch.
That holds… but for the oldschool Italian football funs, it might be fun as it is not for the easy hearted :). Napoli (had a penalty and red), Inter (had a penalty), Lazio (had almost a penalty), Roma (had a penalty, Inter (had a penalty),. There have been a bunch of nervy games yet we prevail, and there is a bit of magic in keeping 1 0, maybe its even easer to defend it than 2 0 ;).