“UEFA Champions League”: Valuable win for Milan and a crushing victory for Atletico
Both AC Milan (Italy) and Atletico Madrid (Spain) secured their third win in the fifth match of the new unified group stage of the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday, away from home. Milan triumphed 3-2 over Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia), while Atletico delivered a crushing 6-0 victory against Slavia Prague (Czech Republic).
In Bratislava, after starting their campaign with losses to Liverpool (England) 1-3 and Bayer Leverkusen (Germany) 0-1, Milan seems to have bounced back, securing their third consecutive win on Tuesday in a streak that also included a 3-1 victory over reigning champions Real Madrid in their last match.
Milan ended the first half of their second-ever encounter with Slovan Bratislava—after their first meeting in the 1992-1993 group stage, where they won 1-0 and 4-0—tied 1-1. Milan took the lead through American Christian Pulisic, assisted by Englishman Tammy Abraham after a counterattack. However, the hosts responded through Armenian Tigran Barsigyan, who scored after a long run and shot over French goalkeeper Mike Maignan (21).
Milan regained the lead in the second half through Portuguese Rafael Leao, following a pass from Frenchman Youssef Fofana (68), and extended their lead through Abraham, who capitalized on a defensive mistake to intercept and score (71).
Despite a late goal from Slovan’s Nino Marselli with a shot from outside the box (88), the Slovakian side suffered their fifth loss in five games, while Milan raised their points tally to 9, the same as Atletico, who proved they had recovered from a shocking 1-3 home defeat to Lille (France) in the third round. Atletico followed up with their second consecutive win after defeating Paris Saint-Germain 2-1 away, by thrashing Sparta Prague 6-0.
Atletico, coached by Argentine Diego Simeone, owe their sixth consecutive win in all competitions—and third in the continental tournament—to Argentine Julian Alvarez (15 and 59), Marcos Llorente (43), French Antoine Griezmann (43), and another Argentine, Angel Correa (85 and 89).
With this victory, Atletico matched their largest ever result in the competition, a 6-0 win over Scottish Celtic on November 7, 2023, in the group stage.
Like Milan, Atletico has revived its hopes of being among the top 8 teams qualifying directly to the knockout stage, especially since their remaining fixtures seem relatively easy, with away games against Slovan Bratislava, followed by home matches against Bayer Leverkusen and a final away game against Red Bull Salzburg (Austria).
