BREAKING: Ruben Loftus-Cheek Shines As AC Milan Defeat Rennes In UEFA Europa League knockout—-AC Milan produced a very impressive team performance to overcome Stade Rennais pretty comfortably in their UEFA Europa League knockout stage play-off first leg at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek was the hero as he netted a superb double either side of half-time before Rafael Leao added a third late on to cap off the very fine display from the hosts.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek gave AC Milan one foot in the Europa League round-of-16 with a well-taken brace before Rafael Leao heaped more misery on Rennes, who have a three-goal mountain to climb in the return leg next week.
Milan looked a handful for Rennes right from the opening stages of the game with Leao, Tijjani Reijnders and Yunus Musah going close to scoring before Loftus-Cheek broke the damn just after the half-hour mark.
He hit his fifth and sixth goals in eight games against Rennes, both coming from confident headers that reflect his purple patch before Rafael Leao – not always the calmest in front of goal – all but ended the tie with a clinical third.
Rennes substitute striker Amine Gouiri did bring some life to the French side with 20 minutes to go and may well have played himself into the starting 11 for the home leg, but they’ll need much more than that after being completely outmatched by Milan.
It could have been even more than a three-goal deficit too, had Stefano Pioli not opted to rest some of his star players with Milan sat just a point behind second-placed Juventus in Serie A.
