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Roma defeated AC Milan 1-0 in the first leg of their Europa League quarterfinal on Thursday night, with Gianluca Mancini scoring the game’s only goal.
The Yellow and Reds now have a lead to defend ahead of the second leg of the match next week, which promises to be an exciting clash between the two Serie A rivals.
Paulo Dybala had the opening opportunity of the game after five minutes, but he shot over the crossbar from just inside the penalty area.
Less than a minute later, Roma had another opportunity, this time through Lorenzo Pellegrini, but his shot from a bouncing ball always went over Mike Maignan’s crossbar.
In the ninth minute of a frenetic start, Roma goalkeeper Mile Svilar produced a smart save to deny Tijjani Reijnders, while Maignan did superbly to prevent Stephan El Shaarawy down the other end.
Roma takes advantage over AC Milan in the 1st Leg of Europa League
The visitors broke the deadlock in the 17th minute, when Mancini headed a Dybala corner into the back of the net to hush the home fans.
Olivier Giroud came close to tying the game for Milan in the 21st minute. Nonetheless, the seasoned striker saw his first shot cleared off the line by Romelu Lukaku, before being stopped again by the Belgian on the follow-up.
Rafael Leao was the next visitor to try his luck. However, the Portugal international’s overhead kick in the 35th minute never affected Svilar’s goal.
Reijnders was stopped again by Svilar in the 42nd minute, before El Shaarawy blasted wide in the final minutes of the first period, leaving Roma ahead 1-0 at the break.
Reijnders was at it again early in the second session, striking a low shot from distance that Svilar saved, before Maignan denied Dybala down the other end of the field.
Roma had a half-chance to double their lead in the 61st minute when Pellegrini swapped passes with Lukaku before attempting to find the bottom corner, but his shot went wide.
Theo Hernandez headed just wide of the target in the 69th minute, with Milan attempting to respond, before Svilar denied Reijnders again in the 72nd minute.
Milan came close again in the 75th minute, with Svilar turning a Yacine Adli cross against the crossbar before Leao’s goal-bound shot was stopped from the resultant corner.
Giroud should have equalised for the hosts in the 87th minute. Nonetheless, he hit the crossbar from close range, and Roma defended admirably in the closing seconds to ensure they had a lead to defend heading into the second leg.
