AS Roma has put itself in a good position to reach the semi-finals of the Europa League. Coach Daniele De Rossi's team won 0-1 at AC Milan, which started playing football much too late and was the inferior team in its own San Siro for a long time. Gianluca Mancini gave Roma the victory before half time.

As expected, Milan coach Stefano Pioli had a starting place for Tijjani Reijnders, who stood in central midfield with Ismaël Bennacer and saw Rafael Leão, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Christian Pulisic and Olivier Giroud in front of him. At Roma, Rick Karsdorp seems to have permanently lost his starting place to Zeki Celik, who was once again serving as the right back. Up front, De Rossi had his dream attack at his disposal, consisting of Romelu Lukaku, Paulo Dybala and Stephan El Shaarawy.

After fifteen minutes of play, Mike Maignan showed that he has excellent reflexes. El Shaarawy saw his shot deflected by Matteo Gabbia, forcing the French goalie to do everything he could to convert the ball into a corner kick. However, Maignan's feline effort did not prevent Roma from taking the lead almost immediately afterwards.

Roma scored from the subsequent corner kick. Dybala swung a corner kick at the head of Mancini, who dominated everything and headed it into the far corner: 0-1. These are good times for Mancini, who was already responsible for the victory over arch-rival Lazio (1-0) last weekend.

Milan quickly looked for the attack and were disappointed with the defensive qualities of Lukaku, who twice defused Giroud's header. Lukaku also seemed to be a nuisance for Milan at the other end, but the Belgian fell just short of finishing. Roma was shocked moments later when Lorenzo Pellegrini went to the ground after an apparently innocent duel. The Roma captain was eventually able to continue playing.

Milan managed to create little danger before halftime against Roma, which was in a good defensive position and only had to allow a failed bicycle kick from Leão. Reijnders therefore tried it from a distance, without success. Roma lurked on the counter and it seemed to be 0-2 via El Shaarawy. Il Faraone brought the ball sharply across the goal and Maignan could only put an unconvincing hand behind it.

Lukaku was a few shoe sizes short of scoring the next Roman goal. Reijnders came closest to making it 1-1 on behalf of Milan before half-time, but Mile Svilar made an excellent save from the Dutch international's good attempt. The final phase of the first half belonged to Roma. For example, Leonardo Spinazzola was only stopped at the last minute by Malick Thiaw and El Shaarawy shot into the side netting.

After the break, little changed in the game image. Roma left the ball to Milan, who could hardly become dangerous and were mainly knitting. I Giallorossi were waiting for the counter-attack, although they created fewer chances than before half time. In the last fifteen minutes, Milan increased the pace and almost made it 1-1, when a stray cross from Yacine Adli was just kept out of the goal by Mile Svilar.

Just before the end, substitute Samuel Chukwueze made a beautiful dribble on the back line. However, his feat was not appreciated enough by Giroud, who shot against the crossbar from a few meters from the Roma goal. Milan continued to press, Roma trembled, but there would be no more goals.

The clean sheet from Roma means that the Romans did not have to concede a goal for the fourth game in a row in all competitions. This last happened in 2017, when led by Eusebio Di Francesco. Next week the return in Stadio Olimpico.

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