Roma made a disastrous start to the new year as they fell to a tepid 3-1 defeat to AC Milan at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in Serie A, whilst also seeing two players sent off.
The Giallorossi fell behind early after a Tammy Abraham handball allowed Olivier Giroud to score from the spot, whilst a Roger Ibanez mistake was punished by Junior Messias.
Despite Abraham pulling one back, a red card for Rick Karsdorp all-but ended Roma’s hopes and they were undone again by Rafael Leao. To make matters worse, Gianluca Mancini was also shown a second yellow card for a foul in stoppage time, but Rui Patricio saved Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s penalty.
Player ratings:
Rui Patricio 6.5; Mancini 5, Smalling 5.5, Ibanez 4.5; Karsdorp 4.5, Pellegrini 6.5 (’71 El Shaarawy 6), Veretout 5.5 (’71 Afena-Gyan 5.5), Mkhitaryan 6, Vina 5 (’71 Cristante 6); Zaniolo 5 (’85 Perez N/A); Abraham 6.6 (’76 Shomurodov 5.5)
Player of the match: Tammy Abraham
The England international was the only threat and managed to snatch a goal with a clever flick from a Lorenzo Pellegrini shot, as Roma struggled to offer anything going forward. Much of the damage was done in defence and whilst he was far from spectacular, Abraham provided more than his lacklustre teammates.
