In so many ways, tonight’s fixture was Act One, Scene One from the Roma Happened nightmare script. With Roma dancing around the fringes of the top four for most of the season, the Giallorossi were gifted a lifeline earlier this weekend. Thanks to our old pal Luciano Spalletti guiding Juventus to a 3-0 upset over Napoli, Roma entered today’s fixture against AC Milan with a chance to gain ground in the top four. A victory over the Rossoneri today would have given Roma a two-point cushion over fourth-place
Napoli while closing the gap behind Milan to a single point.
And once the opening whistle sounded at the Stadio Olimpico, Roma played like a team with something to prove. Hoping to correct their lousy record against the top sides in the league, Gian Piero Gasperini’s attack was firing on all cylinders in the first half. In the first 20 minutes alone, Roma reeled off seven shots against Mike Maignan—including five attempts from new signing Donyell Malen—and seemed primed to run Milan off the pitch.
Despite Malen, Paulo Dybala, and Matías Soulé running circles around Max Allegri’s defense, when it came to capitalizing on all that creativity, the capital club came up empty-handed. And the poster boy for those frustrations was Malen himself, who saw three shots saved and two more completely missed in the opening 30 minutes. Still, given how thoroughly Roma outplayed Milan across the pitch, including an exemplary first-half performance from Daniele Ghilardi at the back, the odds seemed to favor the Giallorossi.
But you don’t have to be a seasoned Roma fan to know how the second half played out. With the club playing noticeably slower and ceding slightly more space to Milan, the writing was on the wall: Roma would come to rue those missed chances.
After conceding a back-breaking goal to Kone De Winter in the 62nd minute, one aided by some less-than-impressive defending in the box following Milan’s short corner, Roma caught a lucky break in the 74th minute when they were awarded a penalty kick after a Milan handball in the box. And thanks to an impressively struck penalty by Lorenzo Pellegrini, Roma was able to save a bit of face today, earning their first draw in all competitions this season; an incredible feat in and of itself.
So, if you missed any of the end-to-end action at the Olimpico this evening, please enjoy the highlights—the first 30 minutes where thrilling, we promise!
