With Ibrahimovic's Penalty Failure, AC Milan Beat 9 AS Roma Players 3-1

AC Milan successfully beat AS Roma 3-1 (Twitter @acmilan)

JAKARTA - AC Milan beat nine AS Roma players with a score of 3-1 in the match week 20 of the Italian League at the San Siro Stadium, Thursday local time.

Quoted from Antara, Friday, Olivier Giroud's penalty and a Junior Messias goal were avenged by Tammy Abraham before the visitors lost to Rick Karsdorp who received a second yellow card in the 74th minute.

Milan successfully exploited the unequal situation to increase their advantage through Rafael Leao, then Roma lost one more player at the end of the match when Gianluca Mancini also received a second yellow card.

Mancini's second yellow card also resulted in a penalty kick which, unfortunately, Zlatan Ibrahimovic failed to convert, so Milan only closed the game with a 3-1 win.

Splendid showing at the San Siro on our return to action ❤️🖤

Serata splendida a San Siro: che grande inizio di 2022 ❤️🖤#MilanRoma #SempreMilan@Acqua_Lete pic.twitter.com/YYxnbmSBWW

— AC Milan (@acmilan) January 6, 2022

The win leaves second-placed Milan now on 45 points and only one point behind Inter Milan, whose match had been canceled a few hours earlier.

Meanwhile, Roma dropped to seventh because they lost in goal productivity compared to Fiorentina even though they both have 32 points.

The game had only been four minutes into the game when VAR reviewed Theo Hernandez's volley which was denied by goalkeeper Rui Patricio but suspected Abraham for a handball foul in the process.

After nearly three minutes, VAR and referee Daniele Chiffi awarded the hosts a penalty which Giroud converted perfectly to give Milan a 1-0 lead over Roma who are still protesting the unfortunate decision.

Milan's lead was doubled in the 17th minute after Messias snatched the ball from Giroud's shot which had bounced off the post and this time Roma had no reason to protest as the goal came from a blunder in their own back line.

Roma struggled to get back on their feet and only managed to score five minutes before the break when Abraham deflected Lorenzo Pellegrini's shot to round goalkeeper Mike Maignan and make it 1-2 which lasted until half-time.

In first-half injury time, referee Chiffi had issued his first red card aimed at one of Milan's coaching staff on the touchline.

Entering the second half in the lead, Milan would have narrowed the gap if Rade Krunic had made the decision sooner and Brahim Diaz's curling shot did not end up hitting the crossbar.

Roma threatened again and forced Maignan to make two brilliant saves to deny Abraham and Henrikh Mkhitaryan's shot.

Milan's task of maintaining the lead was made easier when Karsdorp received a second yellow card for bringing down Hernandez outside the penalty box in the 74th minute.

The dead ball situation was trying to be exploited by Alessandro Florenzi who was the executor of the free-kick, unfortunately, his shot which had crossed the live fence still hit the crossbar.

A great way to kick off 2022 🔥#MilanRoma #SempreMilan pic.twitter.com/qsnXsNSrgj

— AC Milan (@acmilan) January 6, 2022

Milan restored their two-goal lead in the 82nd minute when Leao, who had only come on in the 64th minute for Alexis Saelemaekers, finished off Ibrahimovic's pass with an individual effort into the heart of the Roma defense.

Ibrahimovic, who has previously scored 11 goals against Roma during his career in Serie A, would have almost added to his tally if Mancini's sharp cross had not been cleared by Mancini before crossing the line.

The 40-year-old striker had another chance when Milan won a penalty after Mancini brought down Leao and was shown a second yellow card. However, Ibrahimovic's penalty execution was too weak and easily secured by Patricio to close the match.

On Sunday the day after tomorrow the two teams are scheduled to play again when Milan travel to Venice and Roma host Juventus at the Olimpico.