AC Milan Show Their Best and Worst in 1-1 Draw with Roma

Saturday's game between AC Milan and Roma was billed as a battle between coaches struggling to keep their jobs. Both Sinisa Mihajlovic and Rudi Garcia have been under fire, and in the end, the 1-1 draw helped Mihajlovic more than Garcia.

It didn't look that way when the opening whistle sounded. Roma came roaring out of the gate, and after 10 minutes, it looked like Milan was facing the prospect of another debacle like October's 4-0 loss to Napoli.

The main culprit was an unexpected one. Alessio Romagnoli has been a solid performer for the Rossoneri since arriving on a €25 million transfer in the summer. But it was obvious returning to the home of his former club made him anxious.

Less than 20 seconds into the game, he failed to control a backpass and gifted the ball to striker Sadiq Umar. The 18-year-old charged into the box and hit a curler that was well-saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma. Two minutes later—after Juraj Kucka and Mattia De Sciglio had already contributed to the comedy by colliding to concede a throw-in—Romagnoli made another mistake, fouling Sadiq off the ball to give Roma a prime set-piece opportunity.

They took full advantage. Miralem Pjanic put in a perfect delivery and Antonio Rudiger slipped through a high Milan line to tap the ball home. This time it was one of the usual suspects, Cristian Zapata, who made the mistake and lost his man.

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That wasn't the end of the pain for Romagnoli. Three minutes after the goal, he was turned inside out by Sadiq, who laid the ball back, only to see Pjanic fire just wide of the target. On the 20-minute mark, he was beaten by Rudiger at a corner and only spared blushes by a smart save from Donnarumma, who parried the ball into the post.

But even as these mistakes were being made, the tide was turning. Mihajlovic, perhaps banking on the inexperience of Sadiq and the overeagerness of Roma's forwards to push up, deployed his defense in a high line near midfield.

It worked perfectly. Roma was caught in this high offside trap six times, almost all of them called when a forward came back from an offside position to field a long ball from the defense. These constant disruptions in rhythm started stunting Roma's attack. They began to rely more and more on the counter—still a dangerous weapon in the hands of Garcia but not as consistent as it once was.

Giacomo Bonaventura started dribbling around the left side more effectively. Keisuke Honda, who easily put in his best performance for a year or more, started getting into more dangerous positions. Carlos Bacca was given an exquisite ball over the top in the 26th minute but was unable to round goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, who snagged the ball despite heavy contact.

By halftime, Roma had the lead, but it looked like Milan was getting the better of the game.

It took all of five minutes to confirm that. Juraj Kucka ghosted into the back post and outjumped Alessandro Florenzi to meet an excellent first-time cross from Honda to equalize. And from there it was all Milan.

But for all the pressure they heaped on Roma's goal, Milan couldn't force home a winner.

It wasn't for lack of trying. Just three minutes after the equalizer, Lucas Digne needed to make a last-ditch header to deny Luiz Adriano with Szczesny flapping helplessly by. On the hour, Kevin-Prince Boateng, playing in his first game since coming back to the club on a free transfer earlier in January, jumped Rudiger deep in his own half and played a ball across the box, only for Kucka to sky it from 12 yards with the net gaping.

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Bacca struck the bar four minutes later, but from that point on, things began to peter out. Neither team had any truly dangerous chances for the remainder of the game. But throughout, Milan kept the ball in Roma's half, only allowing them the occasional run, even after the introductions of Mohamed Salah and Francesco Totti.

Overall, it was a performance that will keep Mihajlovic his job for at least another four days. At that point, he'll have to contend with Carpi in the Coppa Italia quarterfinal.  It's at that point that, according to Mediaset (h/t Football Italia), Milan will decide his future.

He'll bring some lessons into that game. First off, Romagnoli should still be trusted. It was obvious the occasion of playing his former team got to him early, but by the end of the game, he had made a few important interventions.

Bacca looked as dangerous as usual and was unlucky not to score on at least three occasions—once when he hit the bar and twice when tasty balls turned out just a little bit too long for him. According to WhoScored.com, he hit the target with two of his four shots.

But the real revelation here was Boateng. Having not played a competitive match since last season, Boateng instantly injected some real energy into the team up front. Aside from his adroit dispossession of Rudiger, he bent a shot just over the bar after retrieving a deflected effort in the 76th minute and provided a pair of key passes. If this is what he's going to play like over the course of the entire season, Milan has an asset.

Honda's play was also encouraging. After his assist, he tried several more times to test Florenzi—a makeshift full-back who fits better as a winger or midfielder—with more crosses and nearly got one to Andrea Bertolacci with 16 minutes remaining. That it was Bonaventura, not the Japan international, who gave way to M'Baye Niang late in the game was telling.

All in all, Milan had more positives than negatives to take from this game. A little more composure from Kucka or luck for Bacca would have easily made this game 2-1, and given the domination they showed in the second half, they probably could have kept the lead.

This all points to a good bit of momentum going into Wednesday's quarterfinal. Should Milan advance, it would set up a semifinal against a team from either Serie B or Lega Pro, potentially giving them an easy path to the final and, given three of the four teams they could meet in the Coppa final are in the top four, a clear path to get to at least a Europa League spot next season.

While three points would have been ideal—a win would have closed the gap on the top five to two—the way Milan responded after going down a goal early and the way they finished the game showed there is something there to build on. Now the key is keeping Mihajlovic around long enough to do it.