The midweek action of European Football continued on Thursday with the Europa League as all eyes were on Manchester, when Manchester United hosted AC Milan.
There was a sense of heavy optimism from both sets of supporters when the draw for the Round of 16 was made. Out of their 5 previous knockout ties between them in Europe, Milan had eliminated United on 4 different occasion, with the Red Devils managing to knock them out only on one occasion though it was when these two last met.
United came into this match full of confidence with energy sky high with a Derby day victory on Sunday against City. Whereas Stefano Poli registered a 2-0 win against Hellas Verona to keep their title challenge alive.
To say that Milan didn't start of strong would be an understatement as they kept on attacking the United goal. They had two goals disallowed, the first one rightly so for an offside in the 5th minute when Rafael Leao blasted a strike past Henderson.
However the second one was a bit of controversial one. In the 12th minute of the game, Franck Kessie smashed a volley into the back of the United net into the top left hand corner. After the check from VAR the goal was ruled out for Handball as the officals had judged Kessie to have handled the ball, before taking his shot. A Harsh decision for Milan, whereas a major let off for United.
Manchester United's real big miss of the first half came in the 38th minute, when Captain Harry Maguire failed to convert his shot into a goal from 2 yards out. A corner was swinged in by Telles which was then flicked on by Bruno Fernandes, for Maguire who attacked the ball but failed to get his connection right, as the ball struck his shin and then the post and falled safely for a Milan.
With the scores 0-0 at Halftime, United made a change at the start of second half which saw Anthony Martial being subbed off for 18 year old new signing Amad Diallo. The youngster was keen to show his abilities and did exactly that, 4 minutes after coming on when he broke the deadlock to give United the lead.
Bruno Fernandes swinged in a perfect cross over the top of the Defence, which was then finished off by a precise header from Diallo from 10 yards out.
To think that Milan would leave Old Trafford without nothing after all the hard work they did would have been undeserving. In the 2nd minute of injury time, Dutch International Simon Kjær got them a deserving equalizer through a powerful header from a corner which beated Henderson.
Milan now have the upper hand going into the second leg next week through an away goal.
UEL Round of 16 First Leg Results in Full-
Ajax 3-0 Young Boys
Dynamo Kyiv 0-2 Villarreal
Manchester United 1-1 AC Milan
Slavia Prague 1-1 Rangers
Granada 2-0 Molde
Olympiacos 1-3 Arsenal
Roma 3-0 Shaktar Donetsk
Tottenham Hotspurs 2-0 Dinamo Zagreb
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