Champions League: AC Milan's road to the semi-finals

The Rossoneri - who are billed as the 'home' team in the first leg - may have recently been knocked off their perch in Serie A by Napoli, but a first Champions League semi-final in 16 years now awaits Stefano Pioli's side.

Not since their seventh and most recent triumph in Europe's premier competition in 2007 have Milan stepped out onto the turf for the semi-finals, having been eliminated in the group stage last year, but perpetual pragmatism has propelled the Rossoneri to within one step of Istanbul.

Here, Sports Mole takes a closer look at Milan's road to the Champions League semi-finals ahead of Wednesday's latest Milan derby.

GROUP E - SECOND PLACE

Having failed to assert their dominance in a Group E with Chelsea, Red Bull Salzburg and Dinamo Zagreb, Milan did not seal qualification for the knockout stages of the Champions League until the sixth and final matchday.

The Rossoneri gleaned four points from their opening two matches - shaking hands on a 1-1 draw with Salzburg before comfortably seeing off Zagreb 3-1 - but a pair of 3-0 and 2-0 defeats to Graham Potter's Chelsea soon followed.

An early red card to ex-Blues product Fikayo Tomori did not help matters in the second of those showdowns with Chelsea, where Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored a rare goal in front of his former fans, leaving Pioli's men down in third place with two games remaining.

A comprehensive 4-0 success over Zagreb and Salzburg's 2-1 loss to Chelsea on the penultimate matchday propelled Milan back up to second spot, meaning that the Rossoneri simply had to avoid defeat at home to the Austrian champions to book a place in the knockout rounds.

Pioli's side did exactly that with a second successive 4-0 trouncing, finishing on 10 points from 18 on offer to clinch second spot behind Chelsea, although they may have arguably been handed the friendlier tie in the last 16.

LAST 16 - MILAN 1-0 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR

As the cracks began to appear between Tottenham Hotspur and ex-Nerazzurri head coach Antonio Conte, the Lilywhites were not feeling the love when they met Milan for the first leg of their last 16 tie at San Siro on Valentine's Day.

Conte himself made a surprise appearance on the touchline following gallbladder surgery, but the Italian's return to his old stomping ground was a miserable one, as a seventh-minute Brahim Diaz strike handed Milan a slender first-leg advantage.

Such a scoreline was hardly definitive, especially with Spurs hitherto displaying a propensity for goalscoring at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and some in white may have felt that the second leg was there for the taking as Milan adopted a conservative approach.

However, Pioli's game plan worked to perfection, as Milan frustrated a toothless Tottenham - who had Cristian Romero sent off - in North London to come away with a goalless draw and a ticket to the quarter-finals for the first time since the 2011-12 campaign.

QUARTER-FINALS - MILAN 2-1 NAPOLI

Pitting their wits against the team on the verge of usurping them at the top of the Calcio game, Milan left their domestic difficulties at the door when Napoli made the short journey to San Siro for the first leg of their quarter-final showdown last month.

Displaying the admirable defensive nous that got them over the line against Tottenham, Milan - who had downed Napoli 4-0 in Serie A 10 days earlier - struck first through Ismael Bennacer on the 40-minute mark before Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa was given his marching orders for the visitors.

Staying compact to glean a narrow 1-0 advantage, Milan ventured to the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona for the second leg six days later, where Olivier Giroud would miss an early spot kick before firing the Rossoneri ahead on the stroke of half time thanks to a sensational solo run from Rafael Leao.

It was Napoli's turn to squander a golden chance from 12 yards in the second period, as Mike Maignan achieved hero status by keeping out Khvicha Kvaratskhelia's penalty, and a last-gasp Victor Osimhen header ultimately proved inconsequential as Pioli's side came up trumps in the Calcio quarter-final.

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