Steps forward and switches of play: Tactical analysis of AC Milan 3-1 Roma | OneFootball

AC Milan booked their place in the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia by beating Roma 3-1 at San Siro in one of the better performances under Sergio Conceicao so far.

The Rossoneri did the bulk of the work in the first half as Tammy Abraham bagged a brace against his parent club, the first with a towering header and the second a composed one-on-one finish.

Artem Dovbyk came off the bench at half-time and scored early in the second half to make it 2-1, but new signings Santiago Gimenez and Joao Felix linked up after coming on to restore the two-goal lead.

The result means that Milan have a two-legged semi-final to come against the winner of Inter against Lazio, which will be played later in the month. Below is Rohit Rajeev‘s tactical analysis from the game.

Signs of growth

As a starting remark, Milan’s game under Conceicao seem more fluid with each passing day. Positional rotations and switches of play took precedent as Milan were comfortable winners on the night.

Roma’s 3-5-2 transformed into a 5-3-2 off the ball with Ranieri looking to protect central areas of the pitch through Kone, Paredes and Pisilli.

To counter Roma’s press, in the build-up phase Fofana would sit back and then it would create a 3v2 for Milan giving them a numerical advantage. It helped them in build through the wide areas too.

Pulisic – who got a rare start on the left with Leao not at 100% – was comfortable in tucking inside which allowed Theo to stay in his favoured wide position.

Pressing and freedom

In terms of pressing, Milan used a ball oriented pressing system when pressing near the byline. When playing out from the back Milan cut out the passing lanes and set a pressing trap not making Kone and then when he recieved the ball he had no passing option.

Roma would often press Milan to the byline by outnumbering them in the wide areas, but this allowed the Rossoneri to switch the play to catch the away side out of position.

Conceicao gave freedom to the midfielders in the opposition’s final third allowing them to drift from their otherwise strict position on the pitch. This was one of the principles that came into play in the lead up to the first goal.

The second goal came from a switch of play, mentioned earlier as an obvious ploy. Musah evaded the press on the wide right and switched the play to the left for Theo to counter. It created a 3v2 which made Hummels step out of position leaving Abraham free.

The second-half goals

Dobvyk’s goal came as a result of Pavlovic leaving his station and trying to be proactive and aggressive to win the ball back, which Roma had won back from a Milan throw-in.

This meant that Pavlovic’s station was covered by Reijnders, who had the tough task of trying to stop a powerful penalty area striker like Dobvyk and in the end he didn’t quite watch him closely enough. Admittedly, though, the ball took a generous deflection.

Now to the important part. Felix came on and Milan shifted to a 4-4-2. Alex Jimenez went to the left side which helped cover for the work rate Felix lacked, while Musah shifted into the right.

You can see in the average position how Felix (blue circle) is more central than Pulisic (white).

For the third goal, Musah and Reijnders beat the press and the disorganised Roma tried to quickly get into position. With Rensch marking Leao and Hummels in no man’s land, it created a huge gap between the two centre-backs that Felix took advantage of.