The five key battles that could win or lose the game for Milan against Roma | OneFootball

AC Milan will take on Roma at the Stadio Olimpico in the final away game of what has been a disappointing 2024-25 campaign.

It feels like Milan’s hopes of getting a Europa League spot were ended on Wednesday night with defeat against Bologna in the Coppa Italia final. Though there is still a slim chance of a late surge in the table, even beating a resurgent Roma side will be difficult.

Not only have Roma remained unbeaten at home in 2025 and are eyeing a top four spot, it is Claudio Ranieri’s final home game in charge of the club with which he shares a very deep mutual love. So, he will want to sign off in the right way.

Roma vs. AC Milan: The five key battles

If Milan are to somehow get three points from the game, it feels like Christian Pulisic will be key. He has 11 goals in Serie A this season and is close to his best campaign in terms of goals in the ‘top five’ European leagues (12 goals in 2023-24 the record).

Including assists (nine), the American could become only the fourth Milan player to reach 10+ goals and 10+ assists in a single Serie A campaign in the last 20 seasons, after Zlatan Ibrahimovic (14G+11A in 2010-11), Ronaldinho (12G+14A in 2009-10) and Kaká (15G+11A in 2007-08).

His opponent will be Evan Ndicka, who has anchored a starting spot on the left side of a three-man defence under Ranieri. He was strongly linked with a move to Milan back in June 2023 before eventually choosing the capital, and the Ivorian is arguably playing the best he has since arriving.

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On Roma’s right side there should be a duel between the bleach-blonde wing-backs Alexis Saelemaekers and Alex Jimenez. The former initially struggled to stay fit following his loan move to the capital, but after Ranieri arrived he became very important.

Between December 7 and March 2 (13 league games), the Belgian scored six goals. However, in the last three games, Ranieri has only played the former Anderlecht man for four minutes. Jimenez meanwhile has benefitted from the change to a three-man defence, and the two might even end up competing for a starting spot with the Rossoneri next season.

Moving into the midfield, there will be an interesting sliding doors contest between Manu Kone and Youssouf Fofana. Rewinding to the summer, it was believed that Milan were evaluating both Kone and Fofana before deciding to sign the latter, who ended up moving late in the window to the Giallorossi.

While Fofana has had a bit of a rollercoaster campaign, his compatriot is doing well with Roma having played 43 times for them across all competitions, with five goal contributions to his name from generally a deeper-lying midfield position. The pair, of course, know each other well from the French national team.

Back to Milan’s attack, which will be spearheaded by Santiago Gimenez. Having scored three goals in three games leading up to the Coppa Italia final – including a brace against Bologna in the league – there was a genuine hope the Mexican could write a page in Milan’s history by being decisive in the conquest of a second trophy in 2024-25.

Photo by Hector Vivas/Getty Images

However, he was reduced to a substitute role and ultimately had little impact. Gianluca Mancini will be hoping to ensure that Gimenez doesn’t have much of a sniff again tonight: the Italian has been the anchor of a defence which has become the best in Italy this calendar year, with so many clean sheets racked up.

We end with a rarity: a battle between the managers. This will be Claudio Ranieri’s 500th match as a head coach in Serie A, making him the 12th coach to reach this milestone in the history of the competition. Sunday will mark 34 years and 251 days since his debut as a manager in Serie A (9th September 1990 under Cagliari against Inter).

After this season Ranieri will move upstairs into some kind of director/managerial role, while it is already knows that Milan plan to move on from Sergio Conceicao. Thus, while this game has so much importance in terms of the present and the fight for Europe, there is a good chance Milan and Roma will look very different when they face each other in 2025-26.