With 10 players on the field, Slavia Praha was no match for Milan, who now lead 4-2 going into the second leg of their Europa League round of 16 match.
Within the first few minutes, Alessandro Florenzi received a yellow card, which would result in a suspension for the second leg. Shortly after, Florenzi’s free kick went high above the net.
David Doudera scuffed two attempts from promising left-wing positions, and El Hadji Malick Diouf twice caught and let off the home defense.
After only 26 minutes, though, Slavia Praha was reduced to 10 men after Diouf received a straight red card for a late studs-up on Christian Pulisic’s ankle.
Against the flow of play, Milan took the lead when Olivier Giroud headed in a cross from Rafael Leao, who had cut inside down the left.
Just a short time later, though, Simon Kjaer was forced into a last-ditch block after Matteo Gabbia’s mistake ignited a perilous counter-attack. Doudera equalized with a fantastic right-foot volley into the far top corner after Tijjani Reijnders just cleared the subsequent corner to the edge of the box.
Upon the subsequent corner, Leao’s header was saved, and Jindrich Stanek, in a miraculous move, fingertipted Gabbia’s header away from goal.
With a brace of goals from corners, Milan took the lead just before halftime. Before Reijnders could scorch the ball with his right foot, Florenzi cut it short at the area’s boundary.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek scored a free header from a Florenzi corner just moments after David Zima had intercepted Leao’s pass to Giroud, bringing the score to 3-1.
Following the restart, Rafael Leao sent a shot across goal that just missed the far post, but Slavia Praha, who were reduced to ten men, scored again.
Once again, Milan’s defense was too lethargic, and a free kick from Provod found Ivan Schranz at the far post, where he unleashed a fierce strike beyond Mike Maignan.
In the 79th minute, following a Kjaer gaffe that Schranz failed to capitalize on, the 10-man squad came close to equalizing.
After a while, Rafael Leao slid past Slavia Praha defenders on a solo slalom and appeared to have scored with a dinked finish from an extremely tight angle, but Pulisic got the finishing touch on the line giving Milan 2 goal lead before final whistle.
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