On the final day of the Champions League league phase, matches were balanced on a knife’s edge where anything could happen, and Milan is learning the hard way as they trailed Dinamo Zagreb by a goal at half, going down to 10 men due to American midfielder Yunus Musah receiving two yellow cards only separated by eight minutes. With a victory in the match, Milan can make the top eight of the league phase, automatically securing their spot but after losing 2-1 that wasn’t the case.
Musah’s horror eight minutes started when there was a coming together between Josip Misic and Musah after a free kick was awarded to Zagreb, but then the American didn’t dial back his game. He was sent off for bringing down Luka Stokjkovic outside of the box to prevent Zagreb from scoring a second goal.
While there are moments when those types of fouls are necessary, being on a yellow isn’t the time to do that. Trailing by two goals would be better than being down to 10 men as Milan sat 12th in the league phase table at the half. Christian Pulisic did his best to bring them back into the match after scoring his fourth goal of the Champions League in the second half. With that goal, Pulisic became the first American to score four goals in any UCL campaign.
Zagreb would hit back to win to see Milan finish 13th in the table and go into the knockout round playoffs instead of directly into the round of 16 as they would’ve hoped. Manager Sergio Conceicao will also be without Musah for the first leg of that round due to the red card. It’ll be a blow due to Musah becoming a regular after Conceicao took over for Paulo Fonseca, but Milan does have other options in midfield.
In the knockouts, Milan will face either Juventus or Feyenoord and the winner of that will face either Inter or Arsenal so there could be a Milan derby on the horizon. Milan’s fate will be determined on Friday, Jan. 31 when the draw takes place at 6 a.m. ET.
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