Late Milan equalizer denies Amad Diallo’s opener at Old Trafford

Young Ivorian Amad Diallo scored a clever header to give Manchester United a 1-0 lead over Milan in the Europa League Round of 16 battle of European heavyweights, but a dramatic injury-time equalizer from Simon Kjaer ensured the teams will be neck and neck next week at San Siro.

The former Atalanta winger got off the bench at the break and scored within five minutes to make a real statement about his ability. He reacted well to tuck the ball beyond Gianluigi Donnarumma with his head after an intelligent run behind the Red Devils’ defenders. Bruno Fernandes created the goal with a well-timed pass and proved again that he is indeed the heart and soul of Ole-Gunnar Solskjaer’s team.

Milan were looking like the most dangerous team at Old Trafford early on. They penetrated United’s defence way too easily and even had the ball in the back of the net through Franck Kessie only to see the goal disallowed when VAR spotted a handball from the Ivorian midfielder.

Manchester United captain Harry Maguire missed a great chance when he miskicked a ball that fell for him beautifully in the box. He was all alone only a meter away from the unguarded net and he had all the time to position himself for the shot, but he caught the ball with his shin and bounced off the post to his team-mates’ disbelief. Daniel James could double the lead late on, but his finish was poor.

The Red Devils were made to rue their misses when Danish defender Simon Kjaer headed in a late goal to give the Italian side a good result ahead of the return game.

Elsewhere, Ajax dominated the match against Swiss team Young Boys, but weren’t able to break the visitors down until the hour mark when Davy Klaassen scored after playing a smart one-two with captain Dusan Tadic, who would later make it 2-0 himself. And Ajax all but ensured passage into quarterfinals with an injury time strike from Brian Brobbey.

Nicolae Stanciu scored with a lovely curling shot against the newly-crowned champions of Scotland, but Filip Helander poked in from close range from a smart Ionnis Hagi pullback.

And over in Ukraine, Unai Emery proved once again that Europa League is his favourite competition. The Villareal boss led a team for 101st time in the competition, which is a record and he celebrated an empathic win over Dynamo Kyiv.

EUROPA LEAGUE, LAST 16 (First leg)

Thursday

Ajax – Young Boys 3-0 (0-0)

/Klaassen 62, Tadic 82, Brobbey 90+2/

Dynamo Kyiv – Villarreal 0-2 (0-1)

/Pau Torres 30, Albiol 52/

Manchester United – AC Milan 1-1 (0-0)

/Diallo 50 – Kjaer 90+2/

Slavia Prague – Rangers 1-1 (1-1)

/Stanciu 7 – Helander 36/

23.00: Granada – Molde

23.00: Olympiacos – Arsenal

23.00: AS Roma – Shakhtar Donetsk

23.00: Tottenham – Dinamo Zagreb