Milan fell to another Champions League defeat, but after the Victor Boniface tap-in, they were frustrated by the crossbar and an Alvaro Morata miss.
The Rossoneri had lost the opener 3-1 at home to Liverpool, but won three Serie A games on the bounce including the Milan Derby. Alvaro Morata was not fully fit, so Ruben Loftus-Cheek stepped in, with Malick Thiaw, Ismael Bennacer, Alessandro Florenzi and Marco Sportiello injured. Leverkusen lost only one match throughout last season, the Europa League Final to Atalanta, doing the Bundesliga and German Cup double. Xabi Alonso’s side won 4-0 away to Feyenoord in the Champions League and this weekend held Bayern Munich 1-1.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
It was Tijjani Reijnders in a more advanced role, but Mike Maignan made two saves in the first three minutes on Victor Boniface at the near post and then Piero Hincapie’s free header from the resulting corner.
Boniface had the ball in the net after 21 minutes with a volley off the inside of the boot from Jeremie Frimpong’s cross, but VAR confirmed that the winger was offside.
Maignan continued his unorthodox saves on cross-shots, palming the Alex Grimaldo attempt away from Boniface in the six-yard box with Frimpong firing the rebound over.
Milan had penalty appeals when Tammy Abraham ran onto the Rafael Leao through ball and tangled legs with Frimpong.
Maignan made another big save at the dawn of the second half on Florian Wirtz after Theo Hernandez had given it away playing out from the back.
The pressure eventually paid off, as Maignan did manage to parry the Frimpong effort after a Grimaldo back-heel flick, but could do nothing on the Boniface follow-up tap-in.
Victor Boniface puts Bayer Leverkusen a goal to the good against Milan…
How about that backheel in the build-up from Álex Grimaldo? 👏
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— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) October 1, 2024
Milan had a triple opportunity to equalise soon after, but Lukas Hradecky stuck out one arm to parry the Tijjani Reijnders finish, with Emerson Royal and Rafael Leao follow-ups charged down.
Moments later, Abraham couldn’t get the tap-in under pressure on the Rafael Leao assist and Youssouf Fofana fired off target from distance, while Amine Adli threatened from close range too.
Fofana stung Hradecky’s gloves and Milan pinned the hosts back into their own half, Morata almost catching Hradecky napping on a poor back-pass, then his header plucked out of the air.
Milan had an extraordinary chance to draw level on 82 minutes when Theo Hernandez’s strike looped onto the crossbar and Morata incredibly steered the rebound header wide from seven yards.
Loftus-Cheek also tested Hradecky after a free kick and Tella’s counter-attack flashed wide.
Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 Milan
Boniface 51 (B)
Player statistic
| Aleix García |  |
8' |
| Victor Boniface |  |
51' | ||
| Jeremie Frimpong | |
74' | ||
| 84' | |
Álvaro Morata | ||
| 90+3' | |
Samuel Chukwueze | ||
| 90+5' | |
Fikayo Tomori |
Match statistic
this team and coach are MILES off this level. They played to lose. never reacted, and never tried to change anything for the positive. 1-0 is not a true reflection. Bayer Leverkusen deserved many more goals.
The ref certainly didn’t help. how a hand to the face like that is not a tactical foul and a yellow is beyond me. Chuk got his in overtime for a tactical foul.
I feel the team has more potential than they showed in this match, but we are not a team built to compete for the Champions league, we’re built to qualify for it and get end 8-16. We’re not among the top 8 in Europe by any stretch of the imagination.