However the seven-time continental titlists’ lone respite has been the Champions League, or it had been. A loss in Croatia against Dinamo Zagreb on the ultimate day of the primary spherical price them a bye to the final 16.
AC Milan suffered one other loss on Wednesday at Dutch energy Feyenoord, as Igor Paixão scored the one objective the hosts would want lower than three minutes into the competition — a objective that keeper Mike Maignan actually should have prevented:
The excellent news for Milan is that it is solely 1-0 on combination. An equalizer early within the second leg again residence on the San Siro might swing the sequence again the Italians’ manner. However to stave off elimination subsequent Tuesday, new supervisor Sérgio Conceição will want a greater efficiency. He’ll additionally want extra from U.S. star Christian Pulisic.
Pulisic, the membership’s main scorer this season, was unusually quiet on Wednesday earlier than being substituted after an hour. With Conceição nonetheless integrating new recruits like Kyle Walker and João Félix into his squad, it is going to be as much as Pulisic to paved the way subsequent week and maintain Milan’s goals of profitable an eighth Champions League crown alive. If not, it could possibly be the final we see of the Rossoneri on this planet’s premier membership event till at the least 2026-27.
For the primary 44 minutes of Wednesday’s tilt at an electrical Celtic Park in Glasgow, the Scottish titans gave Germany’s finest all the things they may deal with. However such is the all-world high quality of mighty Bayern that it solely took a half-chance for Michael Olise to place the guests forward of Celtic on the stroke of halftime.
It is unimaginable to know what would’ve occurred on Wednesday had Monaco not performed virtually the whole second half down a person. Benfica nonetheless deserves credit score for leaving the principality with a vital 1-0 benefit — and for scoring what turned out to be the decisive objective lengthy earlier than residence defender Al-Musrati was despatched off within the 52nd minute for selecting up a second yellow card. The Eagles at the moment are in prime place to advance with a tie subsequent Tuesday in Portugal.
Earlier on Wednesday in Belgium, Membership Brugge snared a well-known (though controversial) victory over Serie A aspect Atalanta. The match appeared headed to a 1-1 stalemate earlier than sub Gustaf Nilsson transformed a penalty deep into stoppage time to provide the hosts a 2-1 combination lead. Whether or not the spot kick ought to’ve been awarded is one other matter. Decide for your self:
Both manner, Brugge’s job is clearly removed from carried out. And given the contentious manner the opener ended, Atalanta’s gamers and followers can be massively motivated to show the sequence round subsequent week in Northern Italy.
Doug McIntyre is a soccer author for FOX Sports activities who has lined the United States males’s and girls’s nationwide groups at FIFA World Cups on 5 continents. Observe him at @ByDougMcIntyre.
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