Champions League Group E final round: Milan thump Salzburg 4-0 to go through with Chelsea
AC Milan - Salzburg 4-0
A straight shootout to decide which team would join group winners Chelsea in the round of 16, the game was almost guaranteed to be action-packed, and that’s exactly how the first half panned out.
AC Milan signalled their intent early on when Theo Hernandez’ shot came back off the right post. The pressure was all coming from the Rossoneri in the opening exchanges, and Stefano Piolo’s side found the goal they were craving when Olivier Giroud’s header from Sandro Tonali’s corner crept under the feet of Junior Adamu at the back post for his third goal of the campaign.
Having been sparked into life by the goal, Salzburg went on the hunt for a swift equaliser, and they came close to finding it when a pass into the area found Adamu who held off Fikayo Tomori and turned before shooting straight at Ciprian Tatarusanu.
Shortly after, Giroud thought he had scored his second goal of the night when he tapped in after Philipp Kohn had spilled Hernandez’s shot, but the linesman’s flag went up for offside to deny the hosts a two-goal lead at halftime.
This mattered little though as, within a minute of the restart, the seven-time winners took another step closer to the knockout rounds when Giroud headed Ante Rebic’s cross into the path of Rade Krunic, who powered his header into the top left corner to double the hosts’ advantage.
Then, with the hour mark approaching, the game was all but secured when Red Bull made a mess of trying to clear Rafael Leao’s cross, allowing Giroud to fire home for a brace on the night.
Substitute Junior Messias scored in stoppage-time to add extra gloss to the scoreline, as the Italians sailed through to the last 16 in style with a real return-to-form victory in front of their supporters at the San Siro.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Olivier Giroud (AC Milan)
Chelsea - Dinamo Zagreb 2-1
A rotated Chelsea side came from behind to defeat Dinamo Zagreb in their final Champions League group match, as the Croatians failed to reach the knockout stage of a European competition for the first time in three years.
Already group winners, Chelsea were able to take a relaxed tone with seven changes ahead of this weekend’s London derby against Arsenal.
Zagreb, meanwhile, had to win and hope that AC Milan could keep out Salzburg in order to reach the UEFA Europa League knockouts via third place.
That was going to take a huge effort, given that no team drawn from pot four had ever taken six points from the Blues in a Champions League group stage before, but Bruno Petkovic's seventh-minute header got the Croatians off to the perfect start after Cesar Azpilicueta’s poor clearance.
At almost the same time, former Chelsea striker Olivier Giroud gave Milan a lead nearly 800 miles away at the San Siro.
This handed the traveling support fresh belief their European story was not over, only for it to be stripped away by the hosts’ turnaround within 30 minutes.
Raheem Sterling drew Chelsea level, finding the bottom left corner from close range and ending his run of 10 goalless games for club and country.
Blues debutant Denis Zakaria then put his new side ahead with a powerful strike, after running onto Mason Mount’s cutback from the byline, despite Sadegh Moharrami’s attempted block on the line.
The would-be winning goal was a huge boost for the Swiss midfielder after a troubled two months in England, and his dominance in midfield looked like the perfect foundation for Chelsea to build upon, after being embarrassed by Graham Potter’s former club Brighton last time out.
Efforts were ramped up in a bid to put some added security on the lead, though a third goal evaded the home side. In two key chances, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang curled onto the crossbar from 18 yards, whilst Kai Havertz saw a glancing header well caught by Dominik Livakovic.
All Dinamo could do was watch on whilst the Blues ruthlessly choked out their attacking players to allow only two shots on target in the second half.
This was ultimately not good enough from Ante Cacic’s men. Failing to keep up their end of the bargain means no European football beyond Christmas, whilst Chelsea eagerly await the Round of 16 draw next Monday, as their bid to win a third Champions League title in 11 years continues.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Denis Zakaria (Chelsea)