In the early morning of January 7, Beijing time, the 20th round of Serie A matches continued, and AC Milan sat at home to meet the challenge of Rome.
Milan's form fluctuated after the opening 10 wins and 1 draw. In the last 5 matches, Milan have recovered with 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 bearer, during which they only lost to Napoli.
After 19 rounds, Milan temporarily ranked second, four points behind top Inter and three points ahead of third-place Napoli.
Roma's final game before the winter break drew at home to Sampdoria, ending a two-game winning streak against Spezia and Atalanta. Roma are currently sixth with 10 wins, 2 draws and 7 losses, 10 points behind Milan and 6 points behind fourth-placed Atalanta, and if they want to squeeze into the top four, they also need to maintain a stable winning trend.
An hour before the match, the two teams announced their starting lineups, and the Milan side started with 16-Menion, 25-Florenzi, 20-Kalulu, 46-Gabia, 19-Theo, 8-Tornali, 33-Crucic, 30-Messias, 10-Díaz, 56-Salmakles, 9-Giroud.
Roma started 1 Patricio, 23 G Mancini, 6 Smalling, 3 Ibanes, 2 Karlstop, 7 Lorenzo Pellegrini, 17 Velato, 77 Mkhitaryan, 5 Viña, 22 Zagnolo and 9 Abraham.
After the opening, Milan, playing at home, opened the attack mode, and Roma took the initiative to show weakness and retreated to their own half-court defense.
In the 3rd minute, Theo's shot from outside the penalty area was threatening, and Patricio bravely saved to defuse the situation.
Just 1 minute later, the referee called a halt to the game and signaled for VAR to intervene. It turned out that between the electric flint of Theo's shot, Abraham opened his arm in the penalty area and suspected of touching the ball.
Mourinho had words in his mouth, and after looking back, the referee blew the penalty.
Big Giroud stood in front of the penalty spot, easily deceived Patricio, scored a goal, and Milan made a fantastic start.
In the 16th minute, Roma conceded the ball again and Ibanez's fatal return pass was cut off by Giroud, whose shot hit the post.
Messias followed in time and Milan took a 2-0 lead.
The camera was given to Mourinho, who was helpless in the face of a handball in the penalty area and a mistake in a return pass. When Milan took a two-goal lead, the two teams' goal ratio was 6-0 and Roma made a nightmarish start and was precarious.