MILAN — Champions League glory has always eluded Zlatan Ibrahimovic, despite a glittering CV that has seen him play for Europe’s biggest clubs for 20 remarkable years. And now, following AC Milan’s 2-1 defeat against Liverpool in San Siro, the 40-year-old might just have played his last game in the competition.
Milan may be on the road back to success, but time has caught up with Ibrahimovic. Yet another Mohamed Salah goal — the Egypt international has now scored in seven successive Champions League away games — and a Divock Origi header sealed Liverpool’s win following Fikayo Tomori’s 29th minute opener and ensured they finished on top of Group B with a 100% record.
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But this was a night when Milan needed to summon the spirit of their great teams — peerless Champions League-winning sides — and they needed Ibrahimovic to roll back the years and inspire them to victory.
In the end, the former Ajax Amsterdam, Juventus, Internazionale, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United forward looked like a fading star with nothing left to offer and with his flickering dream of Champions League success finally extinguished.
“That is football,” Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said. “We try to organise a team to stop him [Ibrahimovic] getting the ball he wants. We defended exceptionally well.”
Milan, the leaders of Serie A, had gone into the game with an outside chance of reaching the Champions League knock-out stages for the first time since the 2013-14 season, but Stefano Pioli’s team needed to win and hope that FC Porto failed to beat Atletico Madrid in Estadio do Dragao.
The second part of the equation came to fruition with…
Source : espn
