Notes On A Romagnoli-less 2-1 Win At Roma

Ultimately and to some surprise Romagnoli was benched and Tomori got the start. Roma’s defense was also in something of a changed state with Bryan Cristante a starter. Chris Smalling, Davide Santon, Edin Dzeko and others made up a big Roma injury list.
A Roma half chance very early on threatened but it was Milan who had chances to score. First Tomori knocked the ball in from a corner scramble but he was offside then Ibra almost pounced on Pau Lopez mistake but backheeled the ball just wide. Within 9 minutes another goal was disallowed for offside too. This time on a counter Rebic ran and beat the Roma defenders, instead of shooting himself he passed to a just offside Ibra.
The initial flurry settled but another good chance arrived and Kjaer ht the cross bar straight from a corner. Right after that Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored and it was Roma’s turn to have a disallowed goal, for an elbow on back of Theo’s head.
The game remained 0-0 but could have been as much as 4-2. A goal finally came. VAR and pitch side monitor review awarded a penalty to Milan for a stamp on Calabria’s ankle just inside the box. Kessie convert as cool as he always has.
The second half had Diaz coming on for Hakan and minutes later Leao for Ibra. The Swede had been uncomfortable for most of the game. It also featured an early missed chance, again. Theo shot wide when he could have at least tested Pau Lopez. It was roma who tied soon after, lacklustre marking and defending just out side of the box allowed Jordan Veretout to shoot hard and well to beat Donnarumma. But Milan answered, a poor Pau Lopez clearance was pounced upon and two quick passes found Rebic who made a good turn and beat the Roma goalkeeper.
Rebic signalled that he had injured his left and came off for Krunic. The injuries were starting to pile on already.
At the 70th minute Stephan El Shaarawy, back at his second spell at Roma, came on as a sub as Roma tried to create more.
A bit later Roma had a penalty shout when Mkhitaryan and Theo tangled in the box but that would have been a weak call if given. Milan had one too when Karsdrop made contact with Leao running inside the box.
The game ended with a few more yellows and an important 2-1 win.
What this means about Romagnoli’s place in the starting 11? Time will tell but Tomori was one of the best players on the pitch.