AC Milan ensured that they will take a two-goal first leg lead with them to Prague next week, but that far from tells the story of what was a dramatic game and perhaps a missed opportunity.
Slavia Praha went down to ten men inside the opening 30 minutes and Olivier Giroud opened the scoring, but the visitors equalised. Tijjani Reijnders and Ruben Loftus-Cheek made it 3-1 going into the break but the Czech side hit back again, before Christian Pulisic added a fourth late on.
This morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) has their ratings from the game, starting with the overall team performance and Stefano Pioli’s management which both earned a 6 out of 10.
Rafael Leao was the best player on the pitch for Milan and he was given a 6.5, while Theo Hernandez really struggled at both ends and got the lowest score with a 5.
Christian Pulisic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Tijjani Reijnders were all given the same mark against Leao with each of the three getting on the scoresheet as mentioned.
Alessandro Florenzi, Simon Kjaer, Yacine Adli and Olivier Giroud got half a point less, while Mike Maignan and Matteo Gabbia were scored a 5.5.
Davide Calabria and Fikayo Tomori got a 6 off the bench, with Luka Jovic receiving a 5.5 having failed to assert himself in the contest much.