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Milan remained furious with the referee after Franck Kessie’s red card just 29 minutes away, while Antoine Griezmann and a Luis Suarez penalty completed Atletico Madrid’s comeback.
Champions League Live Blog: Shakhtar-Inter, Milan-Atletico Madrid
The Rossoneri lost their first game 3-2 at Liverpool, while the Spaniards were held to a 0-0 draw at home by FC Porto. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Simon Kjaer, Rade Krunic and Tiemoue Bakayoko were injured, Pietro Pellegri was not on the UEFA list, while Olivier Giroud and Sandro Tonali were not 100% fit. Atleti missed Stefan Savic, but put Rodrigo De Paul and Antoine Griezmann on the bench for a rather defensive formation.
The atmosphere was spectacular in their first Champions League home game in seven years, even though attendance was limited to 50% of capacity by COVID restrictions.
It was a very aggressive start from the hosts and Ante Rebic really should have scored when the offside trap was triggered, but Jan Oblak made a desperate one-on-one save to deflect it a few inches.
In the resulting turn, Brahim Diaz gave it to Rafael Leao just inside the box, he took a touch and swept it to the far corner.
Milan dominated the game, but the referee sent Franck Kessie a very harsh second yellow card, reducing them to 10 men before the half hour mark. Rebic was reserved for his protests and clearly irritable, so made way for Sandro Tonali.
Nonetheless, Leao almost got a spectacular second with a bicycle kick to the crossbar, but the flag was also lifted for an extremely tight offside that might well have required VAR had he entered.
Atleti made an offensive change, with Joao Felix for Kieran Trippier, and had a huge chance on the stroke of halftime when Luis Suarez flew just past nine yards.
The Spaniards continued to advance, with Suarez nodding and Joao Felix seeing a charged shot, but no effort on target until Lemar’s long shot was knocked back by Mike Maignan in the 76 minutes.
The Milan players appeared to be completely exhausted, working up to 10 men for an hour. A bit inevitably, Atleti found his equalizer when Renan Lodi nodded back and Antoine Griezmann hit him on the 12-yard volley, placing himself in front of Alessio Romagnoli.
It wasn’t over yet, as Alessandro Florenzi’s fierce volley was wide and another long-range strike landed on the roof of the net. Maignan put his gloves on a long shot from Joao Felix, but deep in saves, the referee pointed the point for Pierre Kalulu’s handball, from close range on Lemar.
Luis Suarez rolled the penalty to the middle, surprising Maignan to give Atletico Madrid the last of the last minute wins and break Milan’s hearts.
Milan 1-2 Atlético Madrid
Leao 20 (M), Griezmann 84 (A), Suarez 96 pen (A)
Sent: Kessie 29 (M)
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