AC Milan had been pegged back in the second half of their game against Pisa at the Arena Garibaldi, but inside the final 10 minutes they want back ahead. Finally, in the 85th minute - after Ruben Loftus-Cheek's opener, a missed penalty and a few other chances spurned - Pisa's stern resistance was broken by the oldest man on the field: Luka Modric.
On nights such as these it can feel as though football is choosing to remind you of its true nature. Which is, it turns out, the most gloriously perverse, slow-burn, 400milesfromhome, 10.15pm on a Tuesday, waving your arms in the air, grippedwithfinalplottwist-ecstasy pursuit ever devised. For Manchester United's travelling support this game must have felt like a slow-motion strangulation. Your team have had two shots on target all night.
Yeah, frustrating, of course, because conceding a goal is always frustrating, but especially if there's no time left to come back into the game. But I think it's safe to say that they could have scored the [third goal to make it] 3-2 also a little bit earlier. What I mean with that, I think after we scored the 2-2, a few players of ours ran out of energy and I cannot even criticise them for that.
But let's talk about where it went wrong in this one game - and no, it wasn't special teams (although they did fail to score on their single power play opportunity and gave up a goal on their one-and-change times shorthanded). Thanks to a nice goal by Brandon Duhaime early and some luck by way of a Tampa own goal in the second, this was a 2-2 tie heading into the final frame of regulation.