Brahim Diaz leads AC Milan past Tottenham in the Champions League

Tuesday’s 1-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur by AC Milan, led by Brahim Diaz, gave the seven-time European champions the upper hand in their Champions League round of 16 matchup. At a crowded San Siro, Diaz scored the game’s lone goal in the seventh minute to give Milan the lead ahead of the second leg in London the following month. The Spaniard’s goal was the first and one of the game’s few genuine chances, highlighting the underwhelming state of both sides’ records before to the encounter. Diaz told Mediaset, “I’m incredibly thrilled for the squad since we performed amazing job all week.” “We’ve faced some challenging circumstances, but now we must look ahead…Prior to thinking about the London game, we must first focus on Serie A.”

After a terrible sequence of performances over the last month that left their Serie A championship defense in tatters, Milan entered their first knockout round in the tournament since 2014 with their season hanging in the balance.

However, the Italians have a good chance of making it to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2012 as Antonio Conte’s side limited an injured Spurs team to virtually little on his return to Milan.

After losing Rodrigo Bentancur and Yves Bissouma to injury last week, Conte, in the Spurs dugout two weeks after undergoing gallbladder surgery, gave the midfield reigns to Oliver Skipp and Pape Matar Sarr, two young players.

In addition, his side failed to assist Harry Kane, who holds the record for most goals scored, despite Milan having many excellent opportunities to increase their advantage overall late in the second half that were missed by Charles De Ketelaere and Malick Thiaw.

Milan coach Stefano Pioli said Mediaset, “We could have scored two more goals, but the game was hard fought, they caused us problems.”

“It’s just the first leg; the next one will be harder even.”

According to Pioli, Italian teams cannot compete with Premier League clubs’ financial strength.

However, Diaz made the already boisterous San Siro erupt in cheers when he pounced on Theo Hernandez’s saved effort, causing Fraser Forster to make an outstanding save before bundling in the first goal.

Kane’s rebound from Son Heung-saved min’s attempt was the closest Spurs came to scoring in a sluggish first half, but it was ineffective because the Korean was offside throughout the buildup.

Up to De Ketelaere’s substitution in the 77th minute, there was hardly any goalmouth activity. The Belgian striker almost doubled the hosts’ advantage almost immediately after entering the game.

De Ketelaere responded to Oliver Giroud’s flawless knockdown with a header from close range, but he was unable to guide it on goal.

After squandering an even greater opportunity to seal the victory by somehow heading Rafael Leao’s inch-perfect cross wide with the goal at his mercy, Thiaw thereafter held his head in his hands.

However, Spurs were unable to get past a backline that Simon Kjaer had expertly controlled, which contributed to coach Conte suffering his second career loss to Milan.