Troubled AC Milan reeling from Champions League 'suicide'

MILAN: AC Milan are licking self-inflicted wounds after a painful Champions League exit at the hands of Feyenoord which has cast a dark shadow over what has already been an awful season.

Seven-time European champions Milan have the Italian Cup and a top-four finish left to play for after a bizarre elimination at the play-off stage caused in large part by Theo Hernandez’s daft sending off.

Milan dominated Tuesday night’s match at the San Siro until the 51st minute, when Hernandez hit the turf in the penalty area despite not being touched by Givairo Read. The France full-back, who earlier had hit the post, was already on a booking for a needless foul on Anis Hadj-Moussa just before half-time and referee Szymon Marciniak wasted no time in showing him a second yellow card.

Hernandez’s dismissal changed the course of the match and a previously boisterous home crowd, boosted by Santiago Gimenez netting his third Milan goal after just 36 seconds, settled into shocked silence when Julian Carranza thumped home the header which gave Feyenoord the tie 2-1 on aggregate.

“With a bit of good fortune we could have gone two goals up in the first half and we started the second half well, but the match changed when we went a man down,” said Zlatan Ibrahimovic, advisor for the club’s owners RedBird, to broadcaster Sky.

“We’re angry with ourselves, we’re the ones who lost the match. It’s not like our opponents were better than us, we committed suicide is the only way I can put it.” At the San Siro the reaction to Milan’s elimination was one of near total apathy, with no boos of disapproval nor applause for their team’s attempt to overturn the single-goal deficit from the first leg. Fans simply filed away silently as the raucous away end celebrated Feyenoord’s unexpected passage to face either Arsenal or Milan’s local rivals Inter in the next round.

Meanwhile, in the Sky studios across the other side of the city, Milan icons Zvonomir Boban, Alessandro Costacurta and Fabio Capello unleashed their anger at Hernandez, calling him “irresponsible” and “childish”.

Furious Boban, who won three Serie A titles and the 1994 Champions League under Cappello at Milan, went in the hardest, calling Hernandez’s bookings “absurd” and “irresponsible” and labelling him a cheat.

“This is the only way he’ll learn, because he’s been diving for years,” said a livid Boban. “There’s VAR, if you cheat they’ll see it, what is the point? Just keep going. That sort of behaviour would be unjustifiable even in a match between friends on a Thursday night.”

Boban best expressed the frustration that has been bubbling among Milan fans all season, with home matches frequently marked by chants against RedBird founder Gerry Cardinale as the team languish 15 points behind Serie A leaders Napoli.

Milan really shouldn’t have even been in the play-offs as they were sat in the eight automatic last 16 spots with one match remaining in the league phase, at eliminated Dinamo Zagreb.