Gabbia ends AC Milan's derby pain with late winner against Inter / Photo: Gabriel BOUYS - AFP
Gabbia ends AC Milan's derby pain with late winner against Inter
Matteo Gabbia fired AC Milan to a stunning late derby win over Inter Milan on Sunday with a bullet header which earned his team a 2-1 win and local bragging rights, while Roma thumped Udinese 3-0 as fans protested the shock sacking of Daniele De Rossi.
Defender Gabbia rose highest to thump home Tijjani Reijnders' free-kick in the 89th minute and give Milan a win which pulls them out of a miserable early season slump.
Paulo Fonseca's side join Inter on eight points in seventh place thanks to Gabbia's late winner, which came after Federico Dimarco had levelled Christian Pulisic's brilliant 10th-minute individual effort just before the half-hour mark.
Milan's win snapped Inter's run of consecutive derby victories at six and stopped their rivals from taking top spot in Serie A on goal difference ahead of surprise early league leaders Torino.
Sunday's win will give Milan some belief after a difficult start to the campaign which put pressure on new coach Fonseca.
Milan were booed off the field after being thumped by Liverpool on Tuesday but fans were fully back on their side after a strong display as the nominal away side at the San Siro.
They deserved to win as they had the best chances to win the match in the second half and were nearly denied the three points by a fine performance from Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer.
The Swiss pulled off a sensational save to stop Rafael Leao heading Milan ahead seconds after the restart before diving low to keep out Reijnders 20 minutes later.
Leao again cursed his luck in the 75th minute when at the end of a rapid counter-attack Sommer kept out his close range finish, and seconds later Tammy Abraham flashed a great chance just wide.
But Gabbia sparked a wild party among the Milan fans who could finally celebrate ending their derby hoodoo in the most dramatic fashion.
- Roma protests -
Goals from Artem Dovbyk, Paulo Dybala and Tommaso Baldanzi gave Roma a comfortable three points against Udinese who had been surprise leaders before this weekend but drop down to third, a point behind Torino.
Now coached by Ivan Juric, Roma moved up to 10th on six points after a confident display in front of a fractious crowd at the Stadio Olimpico which was more interested in expressing anger at De Rossi's shock dismissal on Wednesday.
The match was a sideshow for the protests which will continue unless Juric's team can continue with the sort of display which earned Roma the three points on Sunday.
"The boys were very sad about Daniele being fired, they were very honest about it and I appreciated that," said Juric after the match.
Supporters hurled abuse at the team from the stands while the entire Curva Sud section of the Olimpico, where the hardcore supporters stand, was empty for the first half an hour of the match.
By the time fans started pouring into the Curva Sud Roma were ahead thanks to Dovbyk's goal, but that didn't stop loud chants of De Rossi's name ringing around the stadium.
Midfielders Lorenzo Pellegrini and Bryan Cristante were given particularly caustic treatment due to rumours that they had a role in De Rossi being sacked which have swept around Rome.
The anger at De Rossi's dismissal has been such that CEO Lina Souloukou, who resigned on Saturday morning, had been placed under police protection after online threats made against her and family.
A banner hung outside Roma's Trigoria training ground described Greek Souloukou, who was previously CEO of Olympiakos, as "evil".
"I'm said for Lina Souloukou, it's not right when these things start to involve family members," added Juric.
Earlier, Albert Gudmundsson netted a brace of penalties on his Fiorentina debut to fire his new team to their first win of the campaign, 2-1 against Lazio.
Ch.P.Robertson--RTC
