Milan secured a vital 1-0 win over Atletico Madrid on Wednesday and is kicking in the Champions League this season after a late goal from Junior Messias. The victory means there is a three-way, matchday six playoff between the Rossoneri, Atletico, and FC Porto in Group B to determine who will join runaway leaders Liverpool in the last 16.
While Pierre Kulu saw a shot from inside the box saved by Jan Oblak, Rodrigo De Paul fired off a long-range strike that never looked like troubling Ciprian Tatarusanu. Thomas Lemar finally found a gap in midfield immediately after the break and he surged through before firing a tame effort at the goalkeeper.
It was Milan’s turn to threaten the Atleti goal just after the hour mark of the football match, with Simon Kjaer heading just over from Theo Hernandez’s free-kick cross. The Rossoneri went even closer 10 minutes later with substitute Tiemoue Bakayoko having his shot from inside the area blocked on the line by Stefan Savic.
When Zlatan Ibrahimovic was slipped through before seeing his effort spectacularly kept out by Oblak would have another near-miss with five minutes to play. Seconds later though, they did score with Junior Messias heading Franck Kessie’s excellent cross into the unguarded net. Before the end, Matheus Cunha then spurned a golden chance to equalise getting his feet all wrong as he attempted to tap home Marcos Llorente’s cross.
A dramatic finale in Group B will see Porto – who lost to Liverpool 2-0 this evening – start the last matchday one point ahead of both Milan and Atletico in second place. Leipzig made sure that there was no drama in the last round around the clubs that continue to compete in the round of 16 by beating Club Brugge away with 5-0. In the first half after which the guests led 4-0 absolutely everything in this match was resolved. Swede Forsberg scored two goals while Nkunku and Andre Silva added one each.
Achieving the fifth victory in the same number of appearances on Wednesday Ajax reached the round of 16 in Group C. This time, they defeated Besiktas away (2-1) with two goals by the great Haller. The Dutch from this group was joined in the round of 16 by Sporting, who were better than Borussia by a 3-1 match results in Lisbon.
Pote became the hero of the home team scoring booth goals in the first half (in the 30th and 39th minute). Borussia dominated and besieged the home goal, while Sporting was extremely dangerous in counterattacks. However, Borussia missed Haaland a lot this time as well, because no one could realize any good opportunity for a possible return.
Everything fell into the water for Borussia when Can blushed in the 74th minute. Sporting solved everything in the 81st minute when Pedro Porro scored for 3-0, while in compensation Malen had just signed the honorary goal of Dortmund.
