AC Milan

LONDON, March 8 (Xinhua) -- AC Milan progressed to the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals for the first time since 2011-2012 after a 0-0 draw with 10-man ...

(Xinhua)

Milan are into the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time in 11 years - their young team are continuing to mature under Pioli.

A poor victor for this stage of the Champions League, this young Milan team were at least mature. Afterwards, Antonio Conte played the football heritage card, arguing the difference between Tottenham and “champions of Italy” AC Milan with their seven Champions League titles, is ‘abissale’, so deep it’s like staring into an abyss. In the meantime, Milan have to grind and edge ties like this last-16 encounter. The concern about the team’s recent form on the road (which flared up in Florence at the weekend), the anticipation Tottenham would suddenly turn it on like other Premier League sides have done against Milan and the question marks over Fikayo Tomori (who gave away another penalty on Saturday) washed away like the London rain. Some will turn up their noses at the football they played against Tottenham but Milan are under no illusion as to who they are at the moment. But Milan wanted to make progress and honour the history of the club in this competition with greater dignity. If Milan are to take another step towards a definitive reawakening, the club needs a ground like the one Spurs call home to bring in the transformative money San Siro, unfortunately, does not. As champions of Italy, Milan made the most of being top seeds in their group and reached the knockout stages, something they had not done since Massimiliano Allegri was in charge. Not the seven Champions League trophies in the Casa Milan museum. For a start, it did not have to be against an insipid Tottenham team who, to borrow a phrase from the lore of Italian football, gave a performance evocative of a ‘coniglio bagnato’, a wet rabbit. Specifically, a night in Athens in the Europa League comes to mind when his former team-mate Leonardo, Milan’s then-sporting director, blamed elimination against Olympiacos in 2018 on the noise in the stadium. Under shafts of bone-chilling rain, the Milan ultras turned their backs on the game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, pulling off their black T-shirts to reveal red, goose-pimpled torsos against a pitch-black sky.

AC Milan held Tottenham to a goalless draw in London and progressed to the UEFA Champions League quarter finals.

- That is the best chance of the game so far. - That is Spurs' best chance of the game so far. AC Milan work a brilliant free kick from the training ground, Tonali finds Messias Jr in the box but the Brazilian can only drag his shot wide. Tottenham will look back on tonight as a real missed opportunity, not purely for the fact that they were eliminated from the competition, but because of the manner that Spurs went out. The board went up for six minutes to a raucous reception and it was in stoppage time where Spurs had their best chance. At the half time whistle, neither side had managed a shot on target.

AC Milan advanced to the quarterfinals of the Champions League after holding 10-man Tottenham to a goalless draw on Wednesday.

Tottenham is now left to battle for a place in the Premier League top four, which would provide a route back into the Champions League. “We felt a bit of pressure. “For sure in our mind it was to put pressure on with intensity but in the first half we found it difficult offensively,” Conte said. Tottenham had gone into the game on the back of bruising losses to second-division Sheffield United in the FA Cup and Wolverhampton in the Premier League. We can do much better.” “I think we can do much better offensively.

Second place in the standings and playoff quarter-finals almost secured.

The objective of the team and coach is to continue to grow, and making the tricolour dream come true. Coach Lantignotti, on the other hand, guided the U17 team to the semi-final, which they then lost to Bologna. The team was good at closing the match at the right time, and I congratulate the boys because they gave everything and got a great result, perhaps not playing as well as other times".