Milan beat Slavia Prague, West Ham slip 1-0 at Freiburg

MILAN: AC Milan battled to a 4-2 win over Slavia Prague in an entertaining first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie at San Siro Stadium on Thursday.

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 halftime, Florenzi assisting again from a corner.

Slavia pulled one back in the 65th minute through a fierce strike from Ivan Schranz, but Christian Pulisic sealed victory for Milan five minutes from time after a great solo run from Leao.

The visitors had looked solid early in the game, but their hopes of a first-ever triumph in Italy were reduced as El Hadji Malick Diouf picked up a red card for a heavy tackle on Pulisic in the 26th minute.