They started the night hoping to secure a spot in the Champions League knockout stage, but they ended it without any European football at all: AC Milan lost at home to Liverpool, courtesy of Mohamed Salah and Divock Origi’s goals and finished last in Group B. The Italians came out with the strongest possible squad, but they had a number of injured players (Olivier Giroud, Samu Castillejo Ante Rebic, Simon Kjaer and Davide Calabria) and just couldn’t overcome Liverpool, even thou the Reds also rotated heavily. After securing the top spot, coach Klopp had to rest some of his players at the advice of the medical department, and he made seven changes, but it was still enough to beat Milan.1 – Divock Origi has scored his first goal in 15 Champions League appearances since scoring in the 2019 final against Spurs, while he has scored in back-to-back appearances in a single season in all competitions for the first time since May 2019. Form. pic.twitter.com/rCqZePbd0H— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 7, 2021 Milan came out with all guns blazing, especially since Klopp made eight changes. Only Alisson Becker, Mohamed Salah, and Sadio Mane kept their place after a win in Wolverhampton, but other players tried to use the opportunity given to them by Klopp. It didn’t started good when former Chelsea defender Tomori scored the opening goal, but San Siro erupted, as it meant that Milan are going through. The cold shower came minutes later, when home team players left Mohamed Salah totally alone, and the Egyptian just picked up a deflection from keeper Maignan and scored easily.And when Origi scored after a mistake by Tomori in the 55th minute, it was just too much for this Milan team. They needed two goals but they just couldn’t create any concrete opportunity, apart from Rebic’s over the bar effort. Klopp decided to rest Mane and Salah soon afterwards as he predicted that toothless Milan won’t make any more threats. Even Zlatan Ibrahimovic played all 90 minutes and failed to make a single chance against Williams, Philips, Konate and Tsimikas, who played together for the first time at the back.In the second game in Group B, we saw the same number of red cards as goals: Porto – Atletico 0-3, but 2-1 for Porto in red cards. Spanish champions had a tough task to win in Porto in order to secure the second place. Diego Simeone and his team have only been left out of the round of 16 on one occasion, that time the Atletico continued in the Europa league, and won the competition under the current coach. Atletico also had problems with injured players, and Simeone was forced to field Vrsaljko, Hermoso and Kondogbia together as the back three defenders for the first time this season. In the end, they managed to secure a clean sheet and together with goals from Griezmann, Correa and De Paul secure the knockout phase of the Champions League.It didn’t started so well, as keeper Oblak saved two great chances form Porto and Luis Suarez left the field in tears and injured in the 13th minute. The Spanish champions somehow weathered the storm before Griezmann scored the first goal of the match. The atmosphere was hot and soon we saw two red cards, for Carrasco and Wendell but then Agustín Marchesín from Porto bench was also expelled due to argument. And the Spaniard ‘waited’ until the end of the match to secure the score, when Correa and De Paul finished the game with goal apiece.
Group stage – matchday 6TuesdayReal Madrid – Inter 2-0 (1-0)/Kroos 17, Asensio 79/Shakhtar – Sheriff Tiraspol 1-0 (1-0)/Fernando 42 – Nikolov 90+2/Milan – Liverpool 1-2 (1-1)/Tomori 29 – Salah 36, Origi 55/Porto – Atl.Madrid 0-3 (0-0)/Griezmann 56, Correa 90, De Paul 90+2/Dortmund – Besiktas 5-0 (2-0)/Malen 29, Reus 45, 53, Haaland 68, 81/Ajax – Sporting 4-1 (2-1)/Haller 8, Antony 42, Neres 58, Berghuis 62 – Santos 22, Tabata 78/ Wednesday20.45: (6.50) Zenit (4.20) Chelsea (1.57)20.45: (1.18) Juventus (8.00) Malmo (19.0)23.00: (1.80) Atalanta (3.70) Villareal (5.00)23.00: (1.70) Bayern (4.10) Barcelona (5.10)23.00: (1.40) Man.Utd. (5.30) Young Boys (8.00)23.00: (1.30) Benfica (5.80) Dynamo Kyiv (12.0)23.00: (2.45) Wolfsburg (3.35) Lille (3.10)23.00: (3.05) Salzburg (3.35) Sevilla (2.50)***odds are subject to change