AC Milan continue to be in impressive form in Italy. The Milanese won 2-1 at Roma despite being shorthanded for half an hour and a late nail-biter, with veteran Ibrahimovic playing a key role in the victory.
After snatching a point from Napoli in the previous week Roma were now looking to snatch a point from AC Milan – and the Giallorossi got off to a decent start, quickly setting their own tone via Pellegrini
The Milanese, on the other hand, did not hide, appeared confident and even defended a bit more actively than the Mourinho team. Kessié (6th), Rafael Leao (11th) and Ibrahimovic (17th) made their first offensive claims before the Swedish veteran curled a free-kick from 17 metres on the left into the bottom right-hand corner after 25 minutes – the 40-year-old’s 150th Serie A goal and also his 400th in the league.
As a result, the game flattened out a little. Milan continued to act courageously, but not as consistently. Roma, on the other hand, continued to make an effort, but lacked the right ideas. Unsurprisingly, they went into the break with a well-deserved 1:0 lead.
Ibrahimovic in focus, Milan shorthanded
After the break, Ibrahimovic was again in the spotlight: First, a goal by the Swede that was worth seeing was conceded by the VAR due to a narrow offside decision (50th), before he was robustly tackled by Ibanez in the Roman penalty area four minutes later. Kessié converted the following penalty to make it 2:0 (57.).
Everything seemed to be fine for Milan, but then Theo fell for a feint by Pellegrini and was shown the red card (66.). In the overtime, Roma increased the pace and hardly had any goals worth mentioning. Milan’s defensive bulwark around Ballon-d’Or-candidate Kjaer stood too well, did not allow anything except for a few exceptions (Zaniolo, 82nd) and had to shake in the end.
The reason: The substitute El Shaarawy scored the late goal in the third minute of injury time – and Roma unpacked the crowbar. In the end, however, the Giallorossi were not granted another goal.
