Bayer Leverkusen‘s Victor Boniface netted a second-half goal to earn a 1-0 home win over AC Milan in the Champions League on Tuesday, giving the German side a perfect start to their campaign while the Italians are still without a point.
Bundesliga champions Leverkusen are on six points after they beat Feyenoord 4-0 in their opening game, while Milan lost 3-1 at home to Liverpool in their first match of the competition.
The only goal at the BayArena came six minutes after the break when Boniface fired home a rebound after Milan keeper Mike Maignan had parried a shot from Jeremie Frimpong.
“I think it’s great news that German football is competitive. It’s good news for us too to have achieved this result against Milan,” Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso said after the game. “Our first sixty minutes were good but in the end we suffered from fatigue after the game against Bayern Munich.
“We showed spirit and character, these three points are very good. In the Champions League you have to know how to suffer and fight, not just play well.”
It was no more than the home side deserved after an opening half in which they had the majority of possession and chances but could not find a way past Maignan, while Milan struggled to get a foothold in the game.
The goal spurred the visitors into action and they threatened to find an equaliser as they pinned Leverkusen back for long periods of the second half, but they fell to their second defeat in their first two games of the competition.
Leverkusen had two early chances in the opening minutes with Maignan saving from Boniface and then keeping out Piero Hincapié‘s header from the resulting corner.
The hosts surged forward at every opportunity, and thought they had found a way through when Boniface had the ball in the net, but Frimpong was offside when he collected a pass on the wing to send in the cross.
Maignan kept Milan in the game, saving from Alex Grimaldo and Florian Wirtz, with Frimpong guilty of wasting chances on the rebound on both occasions, but Boniface made no mistake when his opportunity came.
Grimaldo’s backheeled pass set up Frimpong for the shot which Maignan again managed to get a hand to, but Boniface had the simplest of chances from close range and Leverkusen were ahead.
Milan manager Paulo Fonseca said before kickoff that he did not want to risk Álvaro Morata from the start, but with his side searching for an equaliser the Spanish striker was sent on for Tammy Abraham in the 62nd minute.
Morata had the chance to make his entrance count when Theo Hernández‘s shot from distance took a deflection and bounced back off the crossbar. Morata met the rebound but his header went wide of the far post.
In the closing minutes Leverkusen defender Hincapie made a challenge on Ruben Loftus-Cheek at the edge of the area, which the Milan boss believes should have resulted in a penalty.
“For me it’s a penalty, it’s an intervention on the line,” Fonseca said. “What’s strange is that they haven’t even reviewed the situation. The referee during the game had no doubts, but I don’t like to talk about the referee.
Milan had another late chance to snatch an equaliser but Leverkusen’s Lukas Hradecky saved a shot on the turn from Loftus-Cheek and the home side held out to take all three points.