During the first leg of Roma’s Europa League quarterfinal match against AC Milan, Gianluca Mancini scored the lone goal of the match, resulting in a 1-0 victory for Roma.
Roma have a lead that they need to maintain before the second leg of the competition over Milan, which will take place the following week and is expected to be an exciting matchup between the two teams who compete in Serie A.
Paulo Dybala had the opening opportunity of the game after five minutes, but the Argentine player’s shot went over the crossbar from just inside the penalty box. Dybala’s shot was the first real opportunity of the encounter.
A little under a minute later, Roma had another opportunity, this time through Lorenzo Pellegrini, but his shot from a bouncing ball was always going to go over the crossbar that was being defended by Mike Maignan.
Mile Svilar produced a wonderful stop to prevent Tijjani Reijnders from scoring in the ninth minute of a frenetic start. Maignan then did an outstanding job to prevent Stephan El Shaarawy from scoring at the opposite end of the field.
In the seventeenth minute of the match, the away team made the breakthrough when Mancini headed a corner kick from Dybala into the back of the net, which silenced the fans who were cheering for the home team.
The seasoned striker Olivier Giroud came close to bringing Milan to a level playing field in the 21st minute, but Romelu Lukaku blocked his initial shot and cleared it off the line. Romelu Lukaku then denied Giroud once more with the follow-up shot.
Rafael Leao was the next player to try his luck for the away team, but the overhead kick that the Portugal international took in the 35th minute never truly threatened to put Svilar to the test.
Again, Svilar was able to prevent Reijnders from scoring in the 42nd minute, and El Shaarawy missed the target with a shot in the last minutes of the first half, despite the fact that Roma was leading 1-0 at the break.
In the early stages of the second half, Reijnders attempted to score once more by shooting a low shot from a distance towards the goal for Milan. However, Svilar made the save, and Maignan had to make a save to prevent Dybala from scoring at the opposite end of the field.
Pellegrini and Lukaku exchanged passes in the 61st minute, and then Pellegrini attempted to find the bottom corner of the net with his shot, but his attempt was just shy of the target. Roma had a limited opportunity to extend their lead.
When Milan was attempting to get back on track, Theo Hernandez headed the ball just wide of the target in the 69th minute. Svilar was there once again to deny Reijnders in the 72nd minute. Milan was looking to get back on track.
The next time Milan came close to scoring was in the 75th minute, when Svilar was able to deflect a cross from Yacine Adli into the crossbar. Following that, Leao had a shot that was headed for the goal that was blocked from the corner that immediately followed.
Giroud had a chance to equalize the score for the home team in the 87th minute, but he hit the crossbar with a shot from close range. Roma’s defense was superb in the later parts of the match, ensuring that they would have a lead to maintain going into the second leg of the match.
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