Arsenal great Xhaka's Leverkusen edge out 1-0 win against FIVE ex-Chelsea stars in the Champions League

By Alessandro Schiavone at BayArena

Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 AC Milan

Goal: Boniface

A former Arsenal star got one up on FIVE ex-Chelsea outcasts and a Tottenham one-timer in the Champions League yesterday.

Freshly-crowned Bundesliga champion Granit Xhaka and his Bayer Leverkusen side registered a 1-0 win over AC Milan thanks to a second-half goal by Premier League target Victor Boniface.

Mike Maignan, the visitors’ MOTM, did just enough to keep out Jeremie Frimpong’s low drive but the Nigerian was unmarked to tap into the gaping net at the far-post.

That’s now zero points on board after the opening two games for ex-Blues Tammy Abraham, Christian Pulisic, Alvaro Morata, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Fikayo Tomori and their ex-North London rival Emerson Royal with the Rossoneri.

And AC Milan could count themselves lucky to be still on level terms at half-time. Wave after wave of Bayer Leverkusen attacks didn’t produce the desired effects with Maignan reigning supreme

He bailed his teammates out twice inside the opening three minutes, repelling Boniface’s low strike and Hincapie’s header.

And was also on hand to palm away Alejandro Grimaldo’s long ranger and hotshot Florian Wirtz’s effort after the German superstar had turned Brazilian Royal inside out. Frimpong, despite his customary zest and vigour, didn’t have his shooting boots on as he blazed over from two scorable positions either side of Boniface’s opener, first over and then hitting the side-netting.

Ex-Chelsea summer 2022 chief target Rafael Leao in particular was underwhelming yet again, appearing disinterested and going through the motions. They say that you have to take the rough with the smooth…but for how long? This is a far cry from the player who set Serie A alive in 2021/22.

At the start of the second period, Leverkusen kept dominating the ball as Maignan produced another superb save from Wirtz before stretching his leg out to deny Boniface’s strike from the byline, with Xhaka missing the target in the rebound.

Yet Leverkusen failed to kill off the game and were nearly pegged back with Paulo Fonseca’s Rossoneri seemingly having saved their best for the final 20 minutes.

Goalkeeper Hradecky made a fine save to block Tijjani Reijnders and had to thank the woodwork for thwarting Theo Hernandez’s deflected strike before Morata made a hash of it all, heading the follow-up agonisingly wide from range.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek then saw his volley beaten away by Hradecky. In the grand scheme of things, Leverkusen deserved their three points having been on top for 70 minutes while also creating countless clear-cut chances on the break in Milan’s best moments.

Abraham is still on the hunt for his maiden goal from open-play after swapping Rome for the San Siro while Pulisic, Milan’s most influential player thus far, can’t always carry the team on his shoulders. Loftus-Cheek, who filled in for the injured Morata, had a night to forget, looking largely out of his depth at both ends.