lead

Max Allegri admits Roma ‘deserved to take the lead within the first 35 minutes,’ however AC Milan held out and secured the victory. ‘The group has to realize self-belief, it’s a course of.’

The Rossoneri had been beneath fixed strain within the opening half-hour, but managed to take the lead with their first shot heading in the right direction, when Rafael Leao pulled again from the by-line for the Strahinja Pavlovic tap-in on the counter-attack.

Commercial

They’d probabilities after the restart, together with a Mario Hermoso goal-line clearance on Leao, however Mike Maignan was the hero to avoid wasting a Paulo Dybala penalty, awarded for Youssouf Fofana’s dealing with offence.

Allegri confession after Milan victory

MILAN, ITALY – NOVEMBER 02: Massimiliano Allegri, Head Coach of AC Milan, appears to be like on previous to the Serie A match between AC Milan and AS Roma at Giuseppe Meazza Stadium on November 02, 2025 in Milan, Italy. (Picture by Marco Luzzani/Getty Photos)

“The primary 35 minutes, Roma completely deserved to take the lead, as we had been getting every little thing fallacious that it was attainable to get fallacious,”

Commercial

“That was additionally as a result of excessive strain that Roma had been placing on us, we had been unable to get out, so we wanted to drop Bartesaghi and De Winter deeper to create extra room to play in. As soon as we took the lead, we had been set out higher in defence too, and will transfer to a four-man midfield.

“We got here out with the appropriate angle for the second half and had probabilities to double our benefit, then in fact Roma got here again at us, however they struggled to create clear-cut scoring alternatives.”

MILAN, ITALY – NOVEMBER 02: Rafael Leao of AC Milan runs with the ball while beneath strain from Zeki Celik of AS Roma through the Serie A match between AC Milan and AS Roma at Giuseppe Meazza Stadium on November 02, 2025 in Milan, Italy. (Picture by Marco Luzzani/Getty Photos)

Commercial

It’s not the primary time that the Rossoneri have had a tough first half, so what can Allegri do to alter that in future?

“I believe our issues prior to now paradoxically have been within the second half, whereas immediately we had been unfold out higher with the 4 midfielders, placing strain on Roma and taking advantage of the areas as they opened up,” insisted Allegri.

“This can be a course of, a group has to realize confidence and self-belief, which isn’t straightforward enjoying at San Siro. We had been lacking some very skilled gamers immediately, together with Pulisic, Rabiot and Tomori, so this was a chance to check totally different gamers within the strain cooker of this stadium. I’ve to say they did very effectively.

Commercial

“Bartesaghi and De Winter had a nasty opening 20 minutes, however improved significantly because it went on, particularly Bartesaghi who had 65 nice minutes.”

MILAN, ITALY – NOVEMBER 02: Christopher Nkunku of AC Milan runs with the ball while beneath strain from Wesley Franca of AS Roma through the Serie A match between AC Milan and AS Roma at Giuseppe Meazza Stadium on November 02, 2025 in Milan, Italy. (Picture by Marco Luzzani/Getty Photos)

Milan had been compelled to make adjustments, as a result of Santiago Gimenez, Christian Pulisic and Adrien Rabiot missed out, so an all-new strike partnership was created of Leao and Christopher Nkunku.

Commercial

“Rafa and Chris each had good performances. Now we have gamers with these traits, so we’ve obtained to profit from them. Nkunku is perhaps fairly quick, however he’s good within the air,” defined Allegri.

“I’ve had plenty of groups with a pure centre-forward and plenty of groups with out, the necessary factor is to get our bodies into the field. Tonight we did that, Fofana may’ve scored two targets doing that, so we’re creating the alternatives.”

This consequence means Milan catch Roma on 21 factors, the identical as Inter, in joint second place only one level behind sole leaders Napoli.

MILAN, ITALY – NOVEMBER 02: A common because the LED display shows a tribute in reminiscence of former Italian soccer supervisor and participant Giovanni Galeone previous to the Serie A match between AC Milan and AS Roma at Giuseppe Meazza Stadium on November 02, 2025 in Milan, Italy. Former Italian soccer supervisor and participant Giovanni Galeone handed away on the 2nd of November 2025. (Picture by Marco Luzzani/Getty Photos)

Commercial

It was a really emotional night for Allegri, as simply hours earlier than kick-off information broke that his mentor and pal Giovanni Galeone had died on the age of 84.

“It’s a unhappy day for me, we misplaced the Mister I used to be so keen on after 35 years of friendship. I joined Pescara in 1991, that they had signed Massara and put me within the package deal. After half an hour of coaching, he stated if you wish to play soccer, you’ll be able to’t be a trequartista, you’ve obtained to be a mezz’ala. That’s the place my modest enjoying profession actually started.

“He taught me a lot, and regardless of the actual fact he was often known as a fantastic attacking coach, I discovered all my defensive tactical ideas from him too,” concluded Allegri.