Troubled Milan sunk at the last by Lazio as furious fans revolt
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Lazio's Spanish forward #09 Pedro Rodriguez celebrates scoring his team's second goal during the Italian Serie A football match between AC Milan and S.S Lazio at San Siro stadium in Milan, on March 2, 2025. (Photo by Piero CRUCIATTI / AFP)
AC Milan plunged deeper into crisis on Sunday after Pedro's
penalty in the eighth minute of stoppage time condemned the seven-time European
champions to a 2-1 home defeat to Lazio in front of livid fans.
Pedro was cool from the penalty spot to fire Lazio into
fourth and the Champions League places, a point ahead of Juventus who host
Verona on Monday night.
The former Spain forward was given the chance to snatch the
win by Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan cleaning out Gustav Isaksen just as Samuel
Chukwueze's 85th-minute leveller looked like giving Milan a barely-deserved
point.
Instead Sergio Conceicao's team languish in ninth place
following a largely dismal home display in which Milan had to play with 10 men
for over 20 minutes after Strahinja Pavlovic was sent off for chopping down
Gustav Isaksen.
"It's not an easy period for the club, the players can
feel everything that's going on around them," said Conceicao to DAZN.
Mattia Zaccagni thought he had decided the match with his
10th goal of the season in all competitions in the 28th minute but Pedro stepped
up to save the day for Lazio at the last.
An eventful match was almost a sideshow to the vociferous
fan protests at the San Siro, with Milan's hardcore supporters not entering the
stands until the 15th minute as a demonstration of anger at performances and
the direction of the club.
And when they did show up the fans offered no support for
the team, instead loudly calling the players "shameful" and demanding
American owners RedBird sell the club.
The boos and whistles which had crashed down from the stands
all match got louder once Pedro slotted home his spot-kick and condemned Milan
to their third defeat in little more than a week.
"It's the first time in my career that I've ever seen
anything like it," added Conceicao.
"When you play in an atmosphere like that your boots
become boiling hot. It's not easy... and I have to say tonight the team showed
the desire to change things. We managed to level with 10 men and could have
even won the game."
Fans have good reason to be frustrated as Milan, a giant of
European football, are a whopping 19 points behind lead leaders and local
rivals Inter Milan, and nine from the Champions League spots after another
desperate defeat.
Ranieri's Roma
revival
Milan have also been overtaken by Lazio's local rivals Roma
who continued their revival under Claudio Ranieri with a 2-1 win over 10-man
Como which kept the capital club in touch with the European places.
Goals in the second half from substitutes Alexis Saelemaekers
and Artem Dovbyk turned an engaging match in Roma's favour and put them in
eighth place.
Roma are four points behind Bologna who sit sixth -- in the
division's Conference League spot -- after beating Cagliari 2-1 earlier on
Sunday.
An eighth win in 11 league matches put Ranieri's team one place
and two points above Milan.
Roma looked in danger of relegation when Ranieri took charge
in November but they haven't lost in Serie A since falling at Como in
mid-December and their form has been such that the 73-year-old was named the
division's manager of the month for February.
Como, who took the lead just before half-time at the Stadio
Olimpico through Lucas Da Cunha, will feel hard done by after performing well
all evening, even after Marc Kempf was sent off for two bookable offences in
the 63rd minute.
Cesc Fabregas' side somehow managed to not level two minutes
before the end when Mergim Vojvoda hit the post and Patrick Cutrone shot
straight at Mile Svilar on the rebound.
However ambitious Como have been excellent since the turn of
the year and should stay up as they sit six points above the relegation zone in
13th place.
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