AC Milan woes deepened on Sunday as Pedro’s stoppage-time penalty secured Lazio a dramatic 2-1 victory at the San Siro, pushing the seven-time European champions further into crisis.
Pedro coolly converted from the spot in the eighth minute of added time after Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan brought down Gustav Isaksen, just as Samuel Chukwueze’s 85th-minute equaliser appeared to have rescued a point for the hosts.
The defeat left Milan languishing in ninth place, well adrift of the Champions League spots.
The result propelled Lazio into fourth place, a point above Juventus, who have a game in hand against Verona on Monday.
The match was played in a tense atmosphere, with Milan’s ultras staging a protest by refusing to enter the stadium for the first 15 minutes. When they finally arrived, they offered no support to the team, instead directing furious chants at the players and club owners, RedBird, urging them to sell.
Boos and whistles rained down from the stands throughout the match, intensifying when Pedro’s penalty sealed Milan’s third defeat in just over a week.
Milan’s struggles this season have left them a staggering 19 points behind Serie A leaders and city rivals Inter, while they now trail the Champions League qualification spots by nine points.
While Milan floundered, Roma continued their resurgence under Claudio Ranieri with a 2-1 win over 10-man Como, keeping them in the hunt for European football.
Second-half goals from substitutes Alexis Saelemaekers and Artem Dovbyk turned the match in Roma’s favour, lifting them to eighth place, two points ahead of Milan and four behind sixth-placed Bologna.
Ranieri’s arrival in November helped Roma escape the relegation battle, and the team has been unbeaten in Serie A since losing to Como in mid-December. Their turnaround has been so impressive that the 73-year-old was named the league’s manager of the month for February.
Como, who had led through Lucas Da Cunha’s first-half strike, were left frustrated after Marc Kempf’s 63rd-minute red card tilted the game in Roma’s favour.
The visitors came agonisingly close to an equaliser late on, with Mergim Vojvoda striking the post and Patrick Cutrone firing straight at Mile Svilar on the rebound.
Despite the defeat, Como remain six points clear of the relegation zone in 13th place and have shown enough promise in recent months to suggest they will avoid the drop.
