Roma 2-1 AC Milan (3-1 agg): Rossoneri crash out after another dire display

AC Milan’s Europa League run was ended at the quarter-final stage as they lost the second leg 2-1 against Roma, meaning they crashed out 3-1 on aggregate.

Roma seized absolute control of the tie with two early goals. The first came when Gianluca Mancini – who scored the only goal in the first leg – reacted quickest to a rebound off the bar to fire in, then Paulo Dybala’s excellent curling strike doubled the lead on the night.

Mehmet Celik saw red for a nasty challenge on Rafael Leao and yet Milan just could not make the man advantage count in the remaining 60+ minutes. The only goal they managed came via Matteo Gabbia’s late header in an otherwise dreadful performance.

The result means that Roma advance to the final four of the competition where they will meet Bayer Leverkusen, with Atalanta getting past Liverpool on the other side of the bracket.

Stefano Pioli made seven changes from the side that drew with Sassuolo. Mike Maignan returned in goal, Davide Calabria, Matteo Gabbia and Fikayo Tomori returned to the defence, Ismael Bennacer rejoined the midfield, then Christian Pulisic and Olivier Giroud returned to the attack.

The first big chance of the game yielded the first goal, and it was Roma who took a firm grip on the tie by taking a 1-0 lead on the night. A prolonged spell of possession inside the Milan half ended with Mancini offloading to Pellegrini who shoots from the edge of the area and hit the post. Bennacer and Calabria were asleep on the rebound, and Mancini pounced to fire into a virtually empty net.

There was a scramble in front of the Roma goal in the 17th minute when Tomori was held back while going to try and stab home a loose ball, and yet Marciniak blew for a free-kick to Roma for a foul by Gabbia on Smalling.

Not long after it was very close to being 1-1 on the night when the ball reached Ruben Loftus-Cheek in behind the Roma defence after a good bit of work by Musah down the right, yet the Englishman saw his shot deflected up onto the crossbar before being cleared. From the resulting corner, Gabbia rose highest with a glancing header that just evaded Leao’s run at the far post.

A minute later, Milan were made to pay as the home side made it 2-0 on the night. Lukaku won a one-on-one against Gabbia who was sent flying and the Belgian tried to centre, but it was blocked to the feet of Dybala who found the far corner with a precise whipped shot.

Just after the half-hour mark, there was a potential turning point in proceedings as Celik was sent off. Leao went past him with speed and the Giallorossi defender lunged in from behind making contact with the Portuguese winger’s Achilles with his studs. Marciniak had no doubts that he prodcued the red card.

A period of pressure naturally followed for Milan, and they caused panic inside the Roma box through a run from Theo who beat three opponents and fed Leao, but Loftus-Cheek’s header in the middle of the area from his cross hit the back of Spinazzola.

Five minutes before the break Pioli made his first change as Luka Jovic came on for Bennacer, and then at the break two further substitutions arrived with Samuel Chukwueze and Tijjani Reijnders replacing Calabria and Loftus-Cheek.

The opening exchanges of the second half went as expected, with Roma committing men behind the ball and trying to limit the space available to Milan.

They did provide some threat on the counter-attack, such as when Spiazzola went on a darting run and found freedom to lash a shot into the side netting with Maignan diving.