AC Milan have given themselves it all to do in the return fixture as they lost the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final tie 1-0 against Roma at San Siro on Thursday night…
The only goal of the game came early on in the first half as Gianluca Mancini was given the freedom of the 18-yard box to head home a corner having lost his marker.
From there Roma would frustrate Milan, limiting them mostly to shots from outside the box, but Olivier Giroud really should have levelled the tie late in the game when he rattled the crossbar from about six yards out.
It is a big blow for the Rossoneri who have seen their seven-game winning run ended, and now they must win at the Stadio Olimpico in one week if they are to stand a chance of reaching the semi-finals.
Stefano Pioli made three changes to the starting line-up compared to the team that beat Lecce last weekend, with Malick Thiaw coming in for the suspended Fikayo Tomori, Ismael Bennacer joining Tijjani Reijnders in midfield and Ruben Loftus-Cheek returning as the playmaker with Samuel Chukwueze dropping to the bench.
Roma had plenty of the possession in the early stages without really managing to threaten, and Svilar was the first goalkeeper called into action inside the ninth minute when a low shot from the edge of the box from Reijnders was fired at pace and drew a parry.
Lukaku’s hold-up play was what Roma looked for early on, and he did brilliantly to work the ball wide to El Shaarawy who tried to put Pellegrini through on goal yet Davide Calabria made an outstanding last-ditch tackle.
