AC Milan vs Newcastle LIVE: Champions League result and final score as Nick Pope saves deny hosts
AC Milan 0-0 Newcastle: Eddie Howe’s side held the hosts to a goalless draw on their Champions League return
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Your support makes all the difference.Newcastle marked their return to the Champions League after a two-decade absence with a hard-fought 0-0 draw with AC Milan at San Siro on Tuesday, as the Serie A club spurned numerous opportunities in the Group F opener.
Milan winger Rafael Leao kept the Newcastle defence busy throughout the contest and had his best opportunity in the 34th minute, but he miscued an elaborate backheel after skipping past two defenders.
He was also wasteful in the second half, firing a header over the bar after Alessandro Florenzi found him with an inch-perfect cross. The visitors’ attacking efforts were limited to counter-attacks and the English side recorded just one shot on target.
The draw could hurt both teams’ prospects in a challenging group, which features Ligue 1 champions Paris St Germain and 1997 winners Borussia Dortmund.
AC Milan 0-0 Newcastle
5 mins: Shot! Milan work the ball nicely over to the left side of the pitch where Rafael Leao collects the ball.
The dangerous forward cuts inside and lets fly on a shot from outside the box but it’s a simple enough save for Nick Pope who gets in behind the ball and scoops it up safely.
AC Milan 0-0 Newcastle
3 mins: Milan take over possession and start to build slowly from the back getting goalkeeper Mike Maignan involved in the play. He knocks it over to the right side of the pitch where Ruben Loftus-Cheek manages to get into space alongside the Newcastle box.
He is marked well and has to retreat slightly as there’s no way into the penalty area.
Kick off! AC Milan 0-0 Newcastle
Newcastle get the game started and boot it long down the left side of the pitch. Alexander Isak brings the aerial ball under control and offloads it out wide.
An early cross into the middle is recovered by Theo Hernandez who clears Milan’s lines without too much trouble.
AC Milan vs Newcastle
Here come the teams.
Kieran Trippier leads out Newcastle at the San Siro for their first European game in 10 years. It’s been two decades since the Magpies last played in the Champions League.
Will they be celebrating a victory later?
How the Champions League lost its spark and led to the end of an era
There was a rare wistfulness around the Champions League draw in Monaco, where football’s most powerful and wealthy gathered in a fittingly ostentatious setting. An era was about to pass.
If the competition’s group stage has recently become a round to pay minimal attention to, this is a season to really savour it. That is because it’s the last one before the introduction of the Swiss system.
This will be the last campaign we go through the satisfying symmetry of the round-robin, hoping it builds up to one of those final matchdays – part of a lexicon that is the stage’s legacy – where it is anything but symmetrical and chaos reigns. The clean nature of the format has produced some wonderfully untidy endings.
How the Champions League lost its spark and led to the end of an era
The last season of the Champions League group stage comes as the tournament again looks short of unpredictability and drama, writes Miguel Delaney, but altering the format is addressing the wrong issue
AC Milan vs Newcastle
Eddie Howe hopes his side will not freeze as they return to the big stage, regardless of the calibre of their opponents.
“There’s no negativity from us towards the draw,” he said. “It’s challenging but there’s some great European games to experience and great places to visit for our supporters.
“It’s a great thing.”
The defiant message behind Newcastle’s complicated Champions League return
As the final whistle blew, cementing a season of overachievement, Newcastle United’s fans were singing a version of a favourite chant, with the lyrics customised as their horizons broadened. “Tell me ma” often contains the assertion that “we’re going to Wembley,” even if the Carabao Cup final was actually Newcastle’s first trip to the national stadium in the 21st century. But as Nick Pope’s late save secured a draw against Leicester to clinch a top-four finish, the destination was changed. “We’re going to Italy,” they chorused; sooner than they thought, perhaps.
Newcastle’s first Champions League game in two decades is at San Siro, against the seven-time champions of the continent, AC Milan. It does not necessarily render them underdogs: not when Newcastle had the financial muscle to sign Sandro Tonali, the Rossoneri fan who was seen as future club captain, this summer. The picture can be clouded both on and off the pitch: Stefano Pioli’s team were Champions League semi-finalists last season but lost the Milan derby 5-1 to Inter on Saturday.
The defiant message behind Newcastle’s complicated Champions League return
Newcastle have a romantic history with the Champions League and although the morality of their ownership can be questioned, a return for the first time in 20 years represents a club who are back
AC Milan vs Newcastle
As the players head out for warm ups and pitch inspections, the Newcastle fans are relishing the sunshine on their first European tour for a decade.
Will they be celebrating later on?
AC Milan vs Newcastle
AC Milan won 11 of their last 19 matches on Matchday 1 of the Champions League, drawing five times and losing on only three occasions across those games.
Newcastle are going to be up against it today.
Champions League group stage changes: What will the tournament look like next season?
It’s the end of an era for the Champions League, as the tournament plays out the last season of its current format before major changes are introduced in 2024.
The most significant reforms to the Champions League in a generation were announced by Uefa in 2021, days before the failed European Super League plot was launched back in 2021, and they received unanimous backing from the European Club Association and Uefa Club Competitions Committee.
It confirmed plans to change the format of European football’s top club competition from 2024, giving the tournament its first new look in 20 years. The proposals were not met with the same level of backlash that greeted the Super League plans but were still criticised by leading fans’ groups, including the Football Supporters’ Association [FSA].
What will the new Champions League group stage look like next season?
This is the last season of the 32-team format before major changes are introduced in 2024
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