Fine margins make the difference as Alonso's Leverkusen beats Milan in the Champions League

LEVERKUSEN, Germany — Bayer Leverkusen is doing things its own way in the Champions League. As AC Milan found out Tuesday, Xabi Alonso's team is entertaining, lucky, and difficult to beat.

Victor Boniface's goal made the difference as Leverkusen beat Milan 1-0 in its first Champions League home game in nearly two years. Alejandro Grimaldo lit up the game with a backheel pass for Jeremie Frimpong to shoot before Boniface finished on the rebound.

Leverkusen had its share of luck, too.

Alvaro Morata missed a close-range header for Milan late on, and the game was packed with close refereeing calls that could have easily tipped the game Milan's way.

“For me this was a Champions League-mentality game and having this experience and this feeling can be important for the future," Alonso said.

Milan was left aggrieved by the referee's decision not to caution Edmond Tapsoba for a shove to Theo Hernandez's face in the first half, and could have had a penalty when Tapsoba and Tammy Abraham tangled in the penalty area soon after.

The referee also played on in added time when Piero Hincapie made a heavy tackle on Milan's Ruben Loftus-Cheek right on the line of Leverkusen's penalty area, one of the final acts in a game of fine margins.

“I felt during the match that the referee didn’t hesitate to go against us. I don’t like to talk about the referees, I don’t want it to be an excuse but we feel these things,” Milan coach Paulo Fonseca told broadcaster Sky.

It was Leverkusen’s first Champions League game since a forgettable 0-0 draw with Brugge back on Nov. 1, 2022, and showed how much has changed for the club in that time.

Back then, Alonso had been in charge for less than a month and was seeing out the end of an underwhelming group-stage campaign that began under his predecessor Gerardo Seoane.

The draw that night secured a Europa League spot that Alonso’s Leverkusen used to start a run to the semifinals of the second-tier competition in 2022-23.

Leverkusen made history the following season with a Bundesliga and German Cup double and a record-breaking unbeaten run that ended only with a loss to Atalanta in the Europa League final.

The loss made Milan one of five teams so far to start the new-look Champions League with back-to-back losses, and by far the biggest name in that position.

Milan was playing in the aftermath of arrests in Italy that shook its fanbase and that of cross-city rival Inter Milan. Police in Milan said Monday they had arrested 19 people in an investigation into alleged extortion, assault and mafia connections around the city’s famed San Siro stadium.