AC Milan topples Champions League winners Real Madrid

Champions League defending champions Real Madrid suffered a 3-1 home defeat against AC Milan in the group stage on Tuesday as striker Kylian Mbappe again failed to find the net.

The 25-year-old France captain has scored one goal in his last six games for Madrid in all competitions, including three defeats for Los Blancos.

Malick Thiaw gave the Italians the lead with a header before Vinicius Junior equalized for the hosts with a penalty.

Alvaro Morata scored against his former team to restore Milan's lead before half-time and Tijjani Reijnders scored the third to secure Milan's victory.

Madrid failed to recover much from its 4-0 defeat to Barcelona at the end of October, with its final game after Saturday's La Liga game in Valencia postponed due to devastating floods in eastern Spain.

Players from both teams wore T-shirts with the slogan “We are all Valencia” before the game, while a giant Valencia regional flag was unfurled from a stand for a minute's silence.

In the following 90 minutes, Paulo Fonseca's Milan, seventh in Serie A, outclassed Madrid.

“We are going through a phase where our opponents are punishing us harshly and we have to keep working to ensure that something like this doesn't happen again,” Madrid defender Lucas Vazquez told Movistar.

Los Blancos have conceded nine goals in their last three home games.

“We have to worry, the team is not doing well,” said Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti.

“The team is not compact, we have to be more compact and organized, we have conceded a lot of goals… we are not well organized on the pitch and we have to work on that.”

Milan have won the competition seven times, behind only record 15-time champions Madrid, but have not reached a final since 2007, when Ancelotti led them to the cup.

This victory was a reminder of their glory days and Fonseca praised his team's courage.

“The players came here with courage, were not afraid… in the first half we got a lot out of it and in the second half we were on the defensive but we fought together,” said the Portuguese coach.

“We definitely deserved the win.”

Ancelotti, who won the Champions League twice with Milan as a player and then twice as a coach, made just one change after the Clasico humiliation, bringing in Luka Modric for Eduardo Camavinga.

Madrid fell behind in the 12th minute. Thiaw's header from a corner just off the post flew past the helpless Andriy Lunin to give the Serie A side the lead.

Mike Maignan saved from Mbappe at the other end as Madrid hit back, with Vinicius winning a penalty when he went down in a clumsy tackle by Emerson Royal.

The Brazilian, who finished second in the Ballon d'Or ceremony in Paris last week when he had been favorite to win, canceled out the winning goal with a cheeky Panenka shot.

– '11 Lions' –

Milan regained the lead in the 39th minute through former Madrid striker Morata, who reacted quickly and shot home from Rafael Leao after a save from Lunin.

Mbappe, still not at his best in Madrid since moving from Paris Saint-Germain and particularly frustrated by the defeat to Barcelona, ​​collapsed again before half-time, but Maignan parried his low shot.

Ancelotti intervened at half-time, bringing on Camavinga and Brahim Diaz, which made for an exciting game in the second half.

Lunin made an excellent flying save to deny Leao's header before the winger set up Reijnders for Milan's third at the end of a superb solo run.

Antonio Rüdiger fired the ball home but was offside, and Maignan made a fine late save to deny Diaz, ending any Madrid hopes of a classic European comeback.

Madrid have now lost two of their four games and are in mid-table, provisionally 17th, one place ahead of Milan.

Their next Champions League game is at Anfield against Liverpool. By then, Ancelotti hopes to have solved some of his team's growing problems.

Morata believed his team's work rate was crucial to their impressive victory in the Spanish capital.

“It was important for us to know what value we have and that it is very difficult for a team to beat us when we have 11 Lions on the field,” he said.

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