AC Milan deepens Real Madrid’s UCL woes

Real Madrid UEFA Champions League experience and home dominance counted for nothing as the Los Blancos were thoroughly defeated by Italian side AC Milan in a 3-1 bashing on Tuesday at Santiago Bernabeu. Real Madrid had not played since their 4-0 loss to Barcelona in the El Clasico and once again they failed to win.

Floods in the Valencia region of Spain meant that Real Madrid’s weekend La Liga fixture was postponed and with Carlo Ancelotti revealing that games in Spain all over should have been postponed all together, his team didn’t look ready for a fixture.

The Italians went ahead just in the first quarter of an hour as Malick Thiaw scored his first-ever goal for the Rossoneri by powering home a Christian Pulisic’s corner. The goal set AC Milan on their way to becoming the second Italian side to beat Real Madrid in their last 19 fixtures against Italian clubs.

Moments later, the Bernabéu crowd was given something to cheer and it was Brazilian Vinícius Júnior who won a penalty when he was fouled by Emerson Royal, before converted the penalty himself. 

However, AC Milan were relentless and despite Andrey Lunin’s best efforts to deny Tijjani Reijnders, he could only parry a Rafael Leão’s shot on the turn into Álvaro Morata’s path to tap in after Aurélien Tchouaméni gave the ball away cheaply.

Despite Carlo Ancelotti’s substitutions at the break, replacing Tchouaméni and Federico Valverde with Brahim Díaz and Eduardo Camavinga, Real failed to be potent in the final third. Instead, AC Milan grew stronger as Lunin palmed Leão’s header off target just ten minutes after the break.

Rafael Leao was instrumental as the Rossoneri added a third that would seal a famous win after he found his way down the left-hand side to square for Reijnders, who slotted home. While Antonio Rüdiger’s late strike was ruled out for offside late on, Real Madrid were disappointing on the night.