Milan's self-destruction gifts Bournemouth a perfect European night
Koni De Winter's handball and Mike Maignan's red card condemned a reduced Milan to a 3-0 Europa League defeat at Bournemouth, who moved to three wins from three.
Milan's Europa League campaign unravelled inside twenty minutes at the Vitality Stadium, where two individual errors handed Bournemouth a 3-0 win built on two penalties and a numerical advantage that never looked like being squandered.
Koni De Winter grazed Evanilson's header with his fingertips at a corner, and VAR flagged the handball for a penalty that Justin Kluivert converted past Mike Maignan, according to Football Italia. It was an early statement of intent from a Bournemouth side already unbeaten in the competition this season after wins over Real Sociedad and Sturm Graz.
Maignan's red card changed the contest beyond recovery
Milan's night deteriorated further soon after. Having saved from Ryan Christie and then scrambled to push away a deflected James Hill effort, Maignan reacted to Tyler Adams jostling him at the resulting corner by shoving the midfielder away. The referee showed a straight red card and, under current protocol that does not require the ball to be in play, awarded a second penalty, Football Italia reported.
Marcus Tavernier scored that spot-kick low past substitute goalkeeper Lorenzo Torriani, who had been on the pitch only long enough to retrieve the ball from his own net. From that point Milan were down to ten men with more than an hour still to play, a position from which recovery against a team with a perfect continental record was always going to be difficult.
The dismissal was as damaging tactically as it was psychologically. Losing a goalkeeper to a straight red forces an immediate like-for-like substitution, costing Milan a outfield option before they had settled into any shape, while the concession of a second penalty in the same passage of play compounded a defensive sequence that had briefly looked under control.
Bournemouth's control was never seriously threatened
Fikayo Tomori was fortunate to escape with only a yellow card after being caught in possession and bringing down Evanilson in the centre circle, a moment Football Italia noted could easily have produced a third penalty. Rayan's resulting header cleared the bar, and Milan's best attacking moment arrived when De Winter's flick-on from a Diego Moreira free kick forced Lewis Cook into a hurried clearance.
Those were isolated flickers rather than sustained pressure. Bournemouth made a enforced change of their own when substitute Alex Toth went off with a muscular injury, but the disruption barely registered against a side playing with a numerical disadvantage for the majority of the match.
Amine Adli completed the scoring with a free kick that curled around a Milan wall and beat Torriani at the near top corner, before the substitute goalkeeper denied Rayan a fourth with what Football Italia described as a reaction save.
A harsh verdict from English eyes
The Guardian's Nick Ames was pointed in his assessment, writing that Bournemouth "would have been given a far sterner examination by Coventry or Hull" and describing Milan as having "resembled holograms even before" Maignan's sending-off. He credited Marco Rose's side with never relinquishing control against what he called "a rotten impersonation of a Milan side".
Ames also framed the result as an uncomfortable marker for Ruben Amorim, suggesting Manchester United, whom Bournemouth visit on Sunday, "share more than a few similarities with the modern version of Milan" on this evidence.
Milan arrived at the Vitality Stadium with three wins from their previous four games across competitions but still chasing progress in the Europa League after a 2-0 home defeat to Benfica. They were missing Goncalo Ramos, Samuel Chukwueze, Alexis Saelemaekers and Matteo Gabbia through injury, with Filippo Terracciano suspended, leaving little margin for the kind of self-inflicted damage that defined this performance.
For Bournemouth, the win extends a flawless start to their European campaign and sets up a demanding week with the trip to Old Trafford to follow. Michele Di Gregorio, on loan from Juventus, made only his second appearance for the club in a match his side barely needed to work for after the opening half-hour.