AC Milan battled to a 4-2 win over Slavia Prague in an entertaining first leg of their Europa League round-of-16 tie at San Siro Stadium on Thursday, with United States attacker Christian Pulisic putting the game away late.
Milan opened the scoring through Oliver Giroud’s close-range header from Rafael Leao’s cross in the 34th minute before the Czechs equalised when David Doudera’s long-range volley went in off the post past keeper Mike Maignan.
Tijjani Reijnders restored the lead for the hosts with a fine low shot from Alessandro Florenzi‘s pass, and Ruben Loftus-Cheek headed home to make it 3-1 seconds before half-time, Florenzi assisting again from a corner.
Slavia, down to 10 men in the first half after El Hadji Malick Diouf’s red card, pulled one back in the 65th minute through a fierce strike from Ivan Schranz, but Pulisic sealed victory for Milan five minutes from time.