Thanks to the goal scored by Spaniard Ibrahim Dias in the first leg in the “San Siro”, Milan untangled its knot once morest Tottenham, who emerged victorious from the two confrontations that brought the two teams together, the first of which was the 1971-1972 season in the European Cup semi-finals (2-1 and 1-1), then in The price of the Champions League final in the 2010-2011 season (1-0 at Milan and 0-0).
Milan reached the quarter-finals for the first time since the 2011-2012 season when it got rid of the other London team in the final price by winning the first leg 4-0 and losing 0-3 in the second leg, before the campaign ended at the hands of Barcelona.
As for Tottenham, who completed the last minutes with ten players following the expulsion of Argentine Christian Romero, he failed to repeat the scenario of his first participation in the competition in the 1961-1962 season when his career ended at the round of four at the hands of Portuguese Benfica, then the 2010-2011 season when he was bid farewell to Real Madrid. And the 2018-2019 season when he reached the final before losing at the hands of compatriot Liverpool.
The kick-off whistle was delayed
The start of the match was postponed for ten minutes due to the late arrival of the two teams to the stadium, thus repeating what happened on Tuesday in the match between the other London team, Chelsea, and its guest, Borussia Dortmund (2-0), whose bus was delayed to reach Stamford Bridge.
“Due to the late arrival of the two teams’ buses, the match has been delayed by ten minutes and will now start at 21:10 CET (20:10 GMT),” UEFA said in a statement.
Milan coach Stefano Pioli told the “Amazon Prime” network that his team was the one who requested that the match date be delayed by ten minutes due to the delay in the bus to reach the stadium due to traffic jams.
The two teams arrived at “Tottenham Hotspur Stadium” just an hour before the start of the match, which the London host started with two changes compared to the first-leg squad, as Ben Davis played in the defense line and Danish Pierre-Emile Hoyberg in the middle following he missed the “San Siro” match due to suspension.
And he returned to Tottenham, his Italian coach, Antonio Conte, following he was absent from him in the last matches because he underwent an operation to remove the gallbladder.
On the part of the Italian guest, Pioli made three adjustments compared to going with the return of French goalkeeper Mike Manian from injury, and the participation of Englishman Vikayo Tomori in defense and Brazilian Junior Messias in the middle.
The two teams did not present anything significant at the beginning of the match, with their lack of the final touch, which made the chances non-existent until the 18th minute, when Milan played a deceptive free kick that brought Messias to be in the face of goalkeeper Fraser Forster, but he hit the right post.
Spurs waited until the 35th minute to threaten Manian’s goal for the first time, with a shot from captain Harry Kane that turned from the defender, but the French goalkeeper was vigilant and saved the situation.
And at the beginning of the second half, Milan was close to reaching the net of its host through the Spanish first-leg goal, Ibrahim Dias, following a pass from Messias, but Forster excelled in defending his own goal (50).
Tottenham moved following that and threatened Manian’s goal through Hoyberg, but the French goalkeeper was on the lookout for him (64), then Milan responded via Frenchman Olivier Giroud, who found Forester on his way (67).
And the task of Tottenham was complicated following he was forced to complete the match with ten players following Argentine Christian Romero got the second warning following a mistake on Frenchman Teo Hernandez (78), which facilitated Milan’s task and helped him walk the match to safety, but he was even close to snatching the winning goal if he did not stop. The left post in the face of a shot by Belgian substitute Divock Origi (4 + 90) seconds following a header attempt by Kane, Manian excelled in blocking it.