AC Milan have been pitted against Slavia Praha in the last 16 of the UEFA Europa League after the draw took place in Switzerland this afternoon.
Milan booked their place in the next round of the competition with a 5-3 aggregate win over a Rennes side who have been on a real resurgence recently, winning every game in 2024 except the first leg at San Siro.
The Rossoneri won 3-0 at home to make things seemingly a formality for the return game in Brittany, but in the end they were made to sweat a bit as they went behind three times and ended up losing 3-2.
The draw for the last 16 took place on 23 February at 12:00 CET in Nyon, and there were seven group winners that awaited as potential opponents for Stefano Pioli’s side.
At this stage of the competition it is not possible to draw a team from the same league, ruling out Atalanta, so the possible teams to meet were: Brighton, Leverkusen, Liverpool, Rangers, Slavia Prague, Villarreal and West Ham.
Milan were the second-last ball to be drawn out of the pot in their side of the draw, with only Slavia Praha or Leverkusen remaining, and it was the Czech side they got.
The first leg will be played on March 7th, while the return leg is scheduled for March 14th. Milan will play their first match at San Siro as the seeded teams – the teams that won their Europa League group – must play the return leg at home.
The draw in full:
➤ Sparta Prague vs. Liverpool
➤ Marseille vs. Villarreal
➤ Roma vs. Brighton
➤ Benfica vs. Rangers
➤ Freiburg vs. West Ham
➤ Sporting CP vs. Atalanta
➤ Milan vs. Slavia Prague
➤ Qarabag vs. Bayer Leverkusen
Not bad at all.
Thankfully it’s one of the easier one
Glück gehabt! Nicht wie in der Champions League…
Lucky lucky lucky Ac milan.
Last nights performance was THE LOWEST Ac milan I’ve ever seen in Europe how anyone can justify these people running the club is beyond me .
I’m afraid all that remains of this once great club is the badge they are truly an embarrassing from top to bottom and buy the way the draw might be a lucky one but this ain’t a given by any stretch.
Grow up mush
I know right, Milan should be banned from from Serie A for being so bad, what a sh*t club
What’s sh*t is that we used to have a midfield trio of: Tonali, Kessie and Bennacer.
It was an excellent midfield. Now, fast forward to the Moncada era and our midfield double pivot is now:
Bennacer & ( Reijnders, Adli, Musah)
– Reijnders – pass merchant. Can’t shoot, pass, play defense. Can anyone send me an AC Milan highlights clip with Reijnders? No? Me neither, because it doesn’t exist.
– Musah – Quite frankly, not talented enough to be at Milan. I don’t even think he’d be a starter at Torino or Genoa.
– Adli – No matter how much I like the guy, he’s just not good for Milan right now. Maybe in a few years but so far he’s shown nothing special.
So YES – I agree with the OP that this AC Milan mgmt has done a HORRIBLE job signing and replacing players. Our midfield is now sh*t and it’s why we’re getting run over.
They SHOULD be called out for that.
Death, Taxes, Meez being Meez 😉
Musah’is 21. It is called developing talent. Or do you want to contribute $ so we can just buy a championship?
Who would you like to run the club and how would you like them to run it?
Out of curiosity: So why do you still support the club if you don’t like anything about what it has become?
🙂
Some light moments in the darkness, we can still dream!!
Lets get the W no matter how!
Dream at your own risk. Milan will disappoint us against Slavia and say “Now we have to focus on top 4 in the league”
whats certain is you will pray for a loss and then call yourself a fan lmao
I’m not a fan yes but I’m a supporter. If you are satisfied with the display milan as shown so far than you are delusional, only a “Fan” would be happy with the results we have seen so far.
yeah supporter of praying for a loss so you can complain online and farm for likes on social media
glad you admitted it
I often disagrees with Bouldens comments but at least he supports the club and players and your comment is absolute self contradicting, first you say you are not a fan but a supporter and then you pretty much bash the club. That isnt supporting it either is it ?
Fact is even the great milan teams lost from time to time against far lesser teams when they were on the top of the world.
Great draw.
REPLY TO YOUR LONG POST:
You are literally contradicting yourself with your comments….
In your reply: “Where have i prayed for our downfall, what gain would i get from Milan losing?”
In your original post: “Milan will disappoint us against Slavia”
Unless we speak different versions of English, your post is literally writing Milan off even before the tie started…
“but it seems that everyone even you 1899, Martin and Boulden are totally fine with the way things are going” – There’s a difference between constantly criticizing a team (Like Meez does, and so many others) and being able to draw positives from what you’re seeing.
This Milan is far from perfect, but credit must go to Pioli where credit is due. Is he the pinnacle of coaches, NO. Has he done well in his time here, YES. Is he at fault for all the losses? NO. Partially? YES.
Again, gotta be objective.
I truly don’t understand why some people hope for losses and keep coming back here just to bash and criticize…. What is the purpose?
one of life’s greatest mysteries…
1st of all, to you, Boulden, Martin, and 1899, learn to read comments to understand. GalaliM said ” we can still dream” I responded, “Dream at your own risk” why I said that to GalaliM? To me recently AC Milan have lost the edge. We are satisfied with Top 4 finish. Recent performance has shown that we going to finish just top 4. Where have i prayed for our downfall, what gain would i get from Milan losing? I’m sorry because I’m venting to the wrong people these criticism statements should be going to all those responsible. but it seems that everyone even you 1899, Martin and Boulden are totally fine with the way things are going. I don’t just criticise milan for likes as Boulden says but I criticise because I know what they are capable of. Before the draw we all wished we wouldn’t pair against Bayer but why? Because we know we wouldn’t do well against them even though a match is played on the pitch not on paper. Perhaps Xabi’s philosophies are superior to Pioli’s or their team is more motivated than us.You 3 know very well how entertaining Milan were, whether at San Siro or on the broadcast. I couldn’t wait for the next match even if we lost we lost trying, take the AC Milan vs Napoli match in 18 Sept 22 or Liverpool vs Milan
at Anfield we lost those matches but we left everything in that pitch.
I probably got my hopes up thinking the scudetto was the 1st of many.
The banter era was brutal for most of us. @Martin I don’t mind losing, I’m not naïve, losing is part of a learning process/experience. But you can’t lose than regress.
Regardless of our current slump in form in the last 2 games we can nevertheless still dream of the europa league. Last year i said we might actually reach the semis of cl if things whent a bit favourabe our way while eveyone said the opposite, We got there. We can still win the europa league, will we ? maybe not but maybe we will if we have an upturn in form and a bit of luck coming our way.
Ive supported milan for over 30 years so its not like i will settle with small tournament wins but ill still take them and if the competitions fixtures goes our way it could very well still be feasible.
The loss yesterday is obviously not something i like but we have an important match this weekend so i will worry more about that match than the loss that came yesterday that basically doesnt mean squat except for a small dent in our pride. Those things also happened back when ac milan was the best team in the world. The monza match was more painfull than yesterdays match as well but besides of that we hadnt lost a serie a match since early december so i dont think the fans needs to paint the devil on the wall because things isnt as bad as some people at least thinks.
In the end would i mind milan hiring klopp at the end of the season obviously not and pioli sometimes can be a bit frustrating but he has overall done a great job at the club and he has a higher wining % than most coaches has had at the club.
Anyways this is the reality we live as we simply isnt the team of the past but we can at least strive for it and support the club untill we hopefully gets back to that status again.
Lucky, but if we play like last night there are no givens. They are very capable.
Man, we finally get a favorable draw! 4/5 times we get Leverkusen.
We almost drew them too… They were the only other ones in the pot with Slavia.
Lucky. pioli must be born under some amazing star 😀
right… what was our UCL group again?
Which season? I can cherry pick
I’d add that even tho we had “the group of death” we could have easily gotten #2 or even #1 this season if pioli wasn’t such a muppet of a coach.. newcastle who? That’s 6 points thrown away by pure incompetence
This presents us with a better chance. But No team is to be underestimated .
And did they top their group?
We should a able to beat a Genoa level team over two legs
Should. Let’s see if we actually can…
Two weeks before the first game. hopefully we can get Tomori reintegrated back and get Thiaw firing on all cylinders again. We know Gabbia is good and ready.
Hopefully we don’t draw Atalanta later on, if we get past Slavia
Watch us get Brighton, so we can add more drama to the “next coach” arguments.
Good draw for now but sadly a lot of best placed teams playing lesser threats which means the next round if we make it will be very good set of teams. Could have done with leverkusen drawing Liverpool
Pot 1 teams could not draw each other. EL group winners were pot 1.
Pot 2 teams were the 2nd place EL group teams – except for ACM which was the only 3rd place CL team to beat the 2nd place EL group team they were matched up against. 7 of 8 winners of those pairings were EL teams.
Then remove pairings from same league.
But regarless Bayer could not be paired with Liverpool in this round
Literally the best possible draw. Cant go wrong from here, ammi right? lol
“Cant go wrong from here, ammi right? lol”
You just had to say it, didn’t you? 😀
😂😂😂🤭
I think we should be able to beat them but next round is a doozy
Lets see how it all end
Lets see how it all end, i wont be easy
Almost. Drew. Leverkusen. WOWZA!
hope we will win this tournament, not the greatest but a missing trophy..
i always want Milan to win, i hate when we lose esp against lower (Monza Rennes etc) i’m Milanista even i don’t like current board.
why i’m still a fan? bcs i’m a fan long b4 the this Jery &co knew what is AC Milan