You’ve seen the highlights. You know Milan eventually pulled through. But honestly, if you just looked at the 3-1 scoreline from that Champions League night at the San Siro, you’d miss the fact that AC Milan spent a good chunk of that match looking like a team that had completely forgotten how to play football.
It was messy.
Milan needed a win—desperately. After dropping games to Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen, Paulo Fonseca was staring down the barrel of a disastrous European campaign. Then came the match against Club Brugge, a Belgian side that, for about 40 minutes, made the seven-time European champions look like amateurs in their own backyard.
The Goal That Shouldn't Have Been
Let's talk about the opener. In the 34th minute, Christian Pulisic stepped up to take a corner. He didn't find a teammate's head. He didn't even find a defender. The ball just... went in.
An "Olimpico."
Directly from the corner flag. Pulisic later admitted it wasn't even fully intentional, which kinda sums up Milan's luck in the first half. They were leading, but they hadn't earned it. Club Brugge had already hit the crossbar via Joel Ordóñez and forced Mike Maignan into two massive saves against Christos Tzolis.
Then came the turning point. Raphael Onyedika caught Tijjani Reijnders on the ankle. It looked nasty on the replay. After a long VAR check, referee Felix Zwayer pulled out the red card. Brugge were down to ten men before halftime. Game over, right?
Not even close.
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Why Milan vs Club Brugge Was a Tactical Mess
Most people assumed Milan would cruise against ten men. Instead, they came out for the second half and immediately conceded. Kyriani Sabbe, a 19-year-old substitute, found himself unmarked in the box and slotted it past Maignan.
The San Siro went silent.
It was embarrassing for a team of Milan’s stature to be outplayed by ten men. The "tactical masterclass" everyone expected from Fonseca was nowhere to be found. The space between the midfield and defense was huge. Basically, Milan were playing with fire.
Fonseca finally had enough. He did something that most Milan fans find sacrilegious: he hooked Rafael Leão.
The stadium whistled. Leão looked confused. But here is the nuance people miss: the moment Leão and Ruben Loftus-Cheek left for Noah Okafor and Samuel Chukwueze, the game changed.
The Reijnders Renaissance
Tijjani Reijnders is usually the guy who does the dirty work. He runs, he recovers, he passes. He doesn't usually score braces.
- 61st Minute: Okafor flies down the left, cuts it back, and Reijnders is there. 2-1.
- 71st Minute: Chukwueze dances past a defender on the right, finds Reijnders again. 3-1.
It was clinical. It was also the first time Reijnders really showed he could be a goal-scoring threat in this revamped Milan system. Without those two strikes, we’d be talking about a very different season for the Rossoneri.
The Heartbreak of Francesco Camarda
If you want to talk about "what really happened," you have to talk about the kid. Francesco Camarda.
At 16 years old, he stepped onto the pitch to become the youngest Italian to ever play in the Champions League. Five minutes later, he headed home a cross and the stadium erupted. He took his shirt off. He was crying. His parents were crying in the stands.
Then VAR happened.
Semi-automated offside showed he was inches ahead. The goal was wiped. It was one of those moments that reminds you why football can be the cruelest sport on earth. He got a yellow card for the celebration, lost the record-breaking goal, but won the heart of every person in the stadium.
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What This Means for Your Next Bet or Analysis
If you’re looking at Milan vs Club Brugge as a sign of Milan's dominance, you’re reading it wrong. This match exposed a lot of "Rossoneri" fragility.
- Defensive Gaps: Milan still struggles against quick transitions, even with a numerical advantage.
- The Leão Dilemma: The team actually looked more balanced and direct once their star player was subbed off. That’s a massive talking point for Fonseca going forward.
- Brugge's Resilience: Don't sleep on the Belgians. Their xG was low (around 0.6), but their ability to frustrate top-tier teams is real.
When these two meet again, don't just look at the names on the back of the shirts. Look at how Milan handles the "mid-tier" pressure. They often play down to their competition, which is a dangerous habit in the new Champions League format.
To truly understand the trajectory of these clubs, you should keep a close eye on Tijjani Reijnders’ positioning in the next few domestic matches. If he continues to push higher up the pitch as he did in the second half against Brugge, Milan might have finally found the offensive spark they’ve been missing from the midfield. Keep track of Camarda's minutes too; he's clearly moved past "prospect" status and is now a genuine option for Fonseca when Alvaro Morata needs a rest.