Milan were left furious with the referee after Franck Kessie’s red card just 29 minutes in, as Antoine Griezmann and a stoppage-time Luis Suarez penalty completed the Atletico Madrid comeback.
Champions League Liveblog: Shakhtar-Inter, Milan-Atletico Madrid
The Rossoneri lost their opener 3-2 at Liverpool, while the Spaniards were held 0-0 at home by FC Porto. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Simon Kjaer, Rade Krunic and Tiemoue Bakayoko were injured, Pietro Pellegri not on the UEFA list, while Olivier Giroud and Sandro Tonali were not 100 per cent fit. Atleti missed Stefan Savic, but benched Rodrigo De Paul and Antoine Griezmann for a rather defensive line-up.
The atmosphere was spectacular in their first Champions League home game for seven years, even if the attendance was limited to 50 per cent capacity by COVID restrictions.
It was a very aggressive start from the hosts and Ante Rebic really should’ve scored when springing the offside trap, but Jan Oblak made a desperate save one-on-one to deflect it inches wide.
On the resulting corner, Brahim Diaz laid it off for Rafael Leao just inside the box, he took a touch and swept it into the far bottom corner.
Milan were dominating the game, but the referee flashed a very harsh second yellow card to Franck Kessie, reducing them to 10 men before the half-hour mark. Rebic was booked for his protests and clearly irritable, so made way for Sandro Tonali.
Nonetheless, Leao almost got a spectacular second with a bicycle-kick off the crossbar, but the flag was also raised for an extremely tight offside that may well have required VAR if it had gone in.
Atleti made an attacking change, with Joao Felix for Kieran Trippier, and had a huge chance on the stroke of half-time when Luis Suarez volleyed just wide from nine yards.
The Spaniards continued to pour forward, Suarez nodding wide and Joao Felix seeing a shot charged down, but no efforts on target until Lemar’s long-range strike was beaten away by Mike Maignan on 76 minutes.
Milan’s players looked utterly exhausted, working their socks off down to 10 men for an hour. Somewhat inevitably, Atleti found their equaliser when Renan Lodi nodded it back and Antoine Griezmann hit it on the volley from 12 yards, getting in front of Alessio Romagnoli.
It wasn’t over yet, as Alessandro Florenzi’s ferocious volley flashed wide and another long-range strike landed on the roof of the net. Maignan got his gloves to a long-range Joao Felix effort, but deep into stoppages the referee pointed to the spot for Pierre Kalulu’s handball, from point-blank range on Lemar.
Luis Suarez rolled the penalty down the middle, surprising Maignan to give Atletico Madrid the latest of last-gasp wins and break Milan’s hearts.
Milan 1-2 Atletico Madrid
Leao 20 (M), Griezmann 84 (A), Suarez pen 96 (A)
Sent off: Kessie 29 (M)
I’m terribly disgusted by the officiating in this game. That ref changed the course of the game. Milan were about 5 minutes from an improbable win, but no, the ref had to rip yet another game from an Italian team. Garbage, utter garbage.
More importantly this shows the real quality or lack there of from the Italian clubs. Inter cannot even beat Shakhtar and Milan did not have the resolve. Juve will follow by being crushed by the blues and shows Italian clubs cannot hang with the continent’s finest. It is just a money issue as PL clubs can afford the best without blinking an eye. Italian stadiums are third world compared to England, Germany and Spain. The infrastructure since 1990 has not been modernised and the tv rights are peanuts compared to PL. Innovation is the key something the Italians do not have as they are stuck in the past and cling on to traditions at the expense of innovation.
Uefa should ban this referee and investigate his actions.
Atleti players must be ashamed of even celebrating the win. The win is clearly not theirs and all they care about is to win. Its good for them but inhumane. And also I dont know how VAR got it handball. We fans at least want refereeing report after every match.
milan has done nothing ineurope for over a decade now. that inexperienced showed. cant give teams hope. i knew eventually ATM would break them down. tonali my goodness. he is horribleno vision, no passing, no strength on the ball. just runs around alot. i cant believe people were saying he was going to be italy’s top midfielders.
Red was harsh. It’s a pity the rules don’t change to book/send off players who pretend to be injured by a little tap to their body.
As for the penalty, his arm was out and blocked the ball.
Milan in trouble now. 4 points form the Porto games a must now, and probably 6.
At least they’re playing Liverpool in the final game, which could be good, given Liverpool could be qualified already by then.
#serie a lover
You sound bent out of shape from Milan 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Referee was a problem. Milan deserved better result
Milan. Were. Robbed. Finish there. As Italian teams often are in Europe. How can that be a penalty when it was Lemar’s hand ball that sent the ball onto Kulu’s arm?????? I mean, I though that was the whole point of VAR. Travesty. After playing so well for 93 minutes after a harsh second yellow…..
This ref should be ban 6 years ago.
I don’t know how they put this guy on game