AC Milan stroll past Lecce, Roma claim derby honours

AC Milan strolled past 10-man Lecce 3-0 on Saturday to consolidate second place in Serie A as Roma beat local rivals Lazio 1-0 and boosted their Champions League hopes.

Early goals from Christian Pulisic and Olivier Giroud, and Rafael Leao’s neat finish shortly before the hour mark, were enough for Milan to move 11 points behind runaway leaders Inter Milan, who are at struggling Udinese on Monday.

But with the title all but decided Stefano Pioli’s in-form side are close to securing Champions League football as they lead third-placed Juventus by nine points after a seventh straight win in all competitions.

A straightforward win at the San Siro was also perfect preparation for Milan’s Italian derby in the Europa League quarterfinals with Roma.

“We feel good, we played the game as we’d planned it in training... now we need to think about the Europa League quarter-final which is a completely different type of match and a big objective for both teams,” Pioli told DAZN.

Daniele De Rossi’s Roma won their first local derby in more than two years and made sure of fifth spot in Italy’s top flight for another week, five points ahead of Atalanta.

Serie A is leading the race for an extra spot in next year’s Champions League, meaning a top-five finish could be enough for Roma to qualify for Europe’s leading club competition for the first time since 2018.

Gianluca Mancini ensured Roma would have bragging rights in the capital city with a bullet header three minutes before half-time at the Stadio Olimpico.

“My heart's still thumping... I'm the happiest man in the world,” said Mancini to DAZN.

“We hadn’t won a derby for a long time so this is for them (the fans), they deserve it. The goal is a great feeling once the game is over but the important thing was making sure we got the points.”