AC Milan qualified this Wednesday evening for the quarter-finals of the Champions League at the expense of Tottenham by drawing a match (0-0) in London, three weeks after their victory in the first leg in Italy (1 -0). The Milanese failed to score despite their numerical superiority after the exclusion of Romero (78th), but took advantage of their advantage acquired in the first leg to join their first quarter of C1 since 2012.
Solid behind and always in control, AC Milan have never been endangered by particularly apathetic Spurs for a match of such importance. The third minute of added time in the second half was the only really exciting one, with a header from Harry Kane beautifully pushed back to ground level by Mike Maignan, for his return to the Milanese cages, while at the end of the counter , Divock Origi found the post.
But before that, Milan got a taste of a typical late winter evening in London with drizzle, just-above-zero temperatures and traffic jams that prevented teams from arriving at the stadium in time, delaying ten minutes. kick-off, like the day before for Chelsea-Dortmund.
At the end of the first leg, the Spurs could be satisfied with having to go up an advantage which seemed minimal (1-0). But against an Italian club, it’s already a small mountain to climb.
Maignan and Giroud at the level
Especially when it comes to the Italian champions, who have kept a clean sheet in four of their previous five matches, while the Londoners have lost four of their last six encounters. Tottenham hoped Antonio Conte’s return to the bench after gallbladder surgery and the enthusiastic support of the 61,000 fans at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium would electrify their players.
It has not happened. During regulation time, Maignan was good with a save after a deflected cross from Kane who could have taken him the wrong way (35th), or a shot from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg from a tight angle which he deflected well beyond above his bar (64th).
The distance duel between the two centre-forwards, Harry Kane and Olivier Giroud, scorer in the quarter-final of the World Cup in Qatar between France and England (2-1), also ended in a draw and virgin.
Kane, apart from his final action and his deflected cross, was only worrying by a diving header quite far from the frame (68th), while Giroud, back in a city where he shone with Arsenal then Chelsea, above all brought by his pressing and his deflection game.
Grimace soup for Tottenham
On the Italian side, the danger came above all from the very mobile Brahim Diaz, scorer in the first leg and who forced Fraser Foster, the replacement for Hugo Lloris, to a fine save from close range (51st). In the final twenty minutes, Conte launched Richarlison in place of a plunger, Emerson Royal, hoping the Brazilian’s physique and aerial game would make the difference. But the direct corner attempted by Son Heung-min, transparent in this match, in the 75th minute, already looked like a confession of helplessness.
Things got even worse when Cristian Romero received a second yellow card from Clément Turpin for a late intervention on Théo Hernandez (78th). And it is therefore the Lombards, seven-time European champions, who will see the quarter-finals in the spring, while in the league they cannot, a priori, hope for better than second place behind Naples.
For Tottenham, the boos at the end of the match suggest that grimace soup is likely to be on the menu for the next few weeks. The club were knocked out of the FA Cup by a second division side recently, then joined by Liverpool in the fight for qualification in C1, while the future of Conte and Kane are up in the air… The rain Londoner has not finished falling on the Spurs.