Gabbia admits Milan are ’embittered’ after Roma defeat but should have had ‘clear’ penalty

Matteo Gabbia believes that AC Milan were denied a ‘clear’ penalty towards the end of their Europa League quarter-final first leg defeat against Roma.

Milan have given themselves it all to do in the return fixture as they lost the first leg 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 acres of space to head home a corner having lost his marker.

Roma had a lot of the ball and frustrated Milan, but Olivier Giroud really should have levelled the game late on when he hit the crossbar from a few yards out.

The Rossoneri 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

Gabbia spoke to Milan TV after the full-time whistle to try and pick apart what was a frustrating night for him and his team-mates, with MilanNews relaying his comments.

There must be a bitter feeling…

“We are embittered, but we must remain focused because nothing is lost now, we improved in the second half but unfortunately it wasn’t enough, we must not lose faith.”

Any comments on the referee?

“It doesn’t seem right to me to talk about the referee, we just have to think about coming back in the tie, it depends only on us. Now let’s think about Sassuolo, then we’ll think about the Europa League again.”

Do you think it was a handball in Abraham?

“It seemed clear to me, but if Turpin didn’t consider it a penalty then it was right, no alibi or excuses obviously, Abraham’s touch just seemed clear to me.”