Marcus Thuram will leave Borussia Monchengladbach as a free agent at the end of the season after the Bundesliga club finally gave up hope of keeping the France forward.

The 25-year-old is enjoying his most fruitful goalscoring campaign and has been linked with clubs including Inter, Chelsea and Newcastle United.

In 28 games, he has managed 16 goals and five assists, already beating his haul of 14 goals from the 2019-20 campaign.

Thuram, who can play as a striker and as a left winger, is the son of former France defender Lilian Thuram.

Gladbach sporting director Roland Virkus said it was with regret that the club would part company with former Guingamp after four years together.

Algerian defender Ramy Bensebaini will also leave on a free transfer, and it has been reported he will join Borussia Dortmund.

Virkus said: "We were in an open discussion with both players and knew their current position. It is a shame that they won't extend their current contracts, which expire in the summer, and we also understand that our fans are disappointed that both aren't staying.

"In the past years, it has always been part of our approach to pick up talented players, develop them further, and at a certain point in time also allow them to leave, because we can't keep them forever.

"In an ideal world, we would have picked up an attractive transfer fee. It is obviously not good that now this is not the case."

In an interview on Gladbach's official website, Virkus described Thuram and Bensebaini as "players that can make the difference".

"Both have helped us from a sporting side in the past few years and are still doing that now," he added, "so despite all our justified disappointment, they have still earned a stylish goodbye."

The news of the twin departures followed Wednesday's announcement that captain Lars Stindl would also be leaving Gladbach after an eight-year stint.

Virkus said: "We were also in an open and fair discussion with Lars. He explained his personal decision in terms of the responsibility he has to his family.

"In the end, that also speaks to Lars Stindl as a person. He has helped shaped the club over eight years, was the face of Borussia, a goal threat, a hard-worker for the team and a brilliant captain. He is now 34 years old though, and your priorities change, he is going back home and you have to respect that."

Victor Osimhen will be "100 per cent" available for Napoli's crucial Champions League clash with Milan next week, according to Luciano Spalletti.

The striker missed his side's quarter-final first-leg loss on Wednesday, as the Partenopei fell 1-0 at San Siro courtesy of Ismael Bennacer's first-half finish.

Osimhen leads the Serie A scoring charts with 21 goals this season, and has been integral to the club's runaway lead in the race for the Scudetto.

But having sat out this week's game with a groin injury, Spalletti has given assurances he will feature for their home tie next week against the Rossoneri.

"Victor Osimhen will 100 per cent be available for the return leg at [Stadio Diego Armando] Maradona on Tuesday," he said. "He will be there."

Spalletti will also have to rethink his plans in light of Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa's dismissal, with the midfielder sent off after a second yellow card for pushing Theo Hernandez.

The Cameroon international will be suspended, as will defender Kim Min-jae following a late booking, but the coach has the belief his side will adapt to their loss.

"Any absence is damaging at this stage of the season, but we also have players who can fill in, which is why we are where we are," he added to Sky Sport Italia.

"We trust the squad. We are sad not to have Anguissa, as it feels unjust not to have him, but there's nothing we can do. I don't comment on the referee, that is not my role."

Napoli will return to Serie A action this weekend against Verona before they face Milan. The Partenopei are already enjoying their deepest run in Europe's premier competition.

Bayern Munich's 3-0 defeat to Manchester City was bad enough, but it has been compounded by claims Sadio Mane left team-mate Leroy Sane with a cut lip after a dressing-room bust-up.

The result in Manchester on Tuesday has left Bayern with a long way to come back in next Wednesday's second leg of the Champions League quarter-final.

Their hopes look bleak, but the on-pitch struggle might just be the beginning of their problems.

Bayern have yet to comment on the claims that came to light on Wednesday, with German newspaper Bild reporting Mane reacted angrily to comments from Sane and lashed out, hitting his team-mate.

There may also be concern within the Bayern ranks about how details of the behind-closed-doors incident leaked out into the media.

For new head coach Thomas Tuchel, the drama was something he could have done without, not least because Mane has already been struggling to live up to his marquee status since arriving from Liverpool.

The Senegalese forward, who joined for an initial €32million last June, sits only sixth on the list of goal involvements for Bayern this season, after managing 11 goals and five assists in 32 games.

Midfielder Jamal Musiala heads that list with 27 involvements (15 goals, 12 assists), and Sane (13 goals, seven assists) is also among those in front of Mane.

 The Mane and Sane alleged clash is a topic Bayern will have to address at some point, and that may come on Thursday.

Should it not, coach Tuchel is due to hold a press conference on Friday ahead of the home Bundesliga game against Hoffenheim.

The former Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea boss has had a rocky time of it since being appointed successor to the sacked Julian Nagelsmann.

His reign began with a sparkling league win against title rivals Dortmund, but a DFB-Pokal exit followed at the hands of Freiburg, and now hopes of European glory are hanging by a fraying thread.

Bayern CEO Oliver Kahn reacted on Wednesday to the team's bad result at the Etihad Stadium, saying on Twitter: "Even the day after we are still bitterly disappointed. We imagined it differently. But there is still a second leg and I've experienced a lot in football myself."

Kylian Mbappe scotched the prospect of an early escape from his Paris Saint-Germain contract by declaring he still wants to win the Champions League with his home city club.

The newly installed France captain signed an extension to his PSG contract last May, keeping him with the Ligue 1 champions potentially until the end of the 2024-25 season.

That staved off strong interest from Real Madrid in the player who went on to be top scorer at the Qatar World Cup, hitting a hat-trick in a losing cause against Argentina in the final.

For Mbappe, triumphing in the Champions League with the French capital giants would be the crowning glory of his career.

PSG went close in 2020, losing out 1-0 to Bayern Munich in the final, but they have been bundled out at the last-16 stage in the last two seasons, with Real Madrid taking their scalp last year and Bayern Munich their conquerors this time around.

"The next level? To win the Champions League, I think," Mbappe told France 3 show Tout Le Sport.

"I've already made a final, semi-final, quarter-final, round of 16… I have done everything except winning.

"That's all I need. I hope it will be as soon as possible.

"Where? At Paris Saint-Germain. I'm Parisian and under contract. So it's Paris Saint-Germain."

Mbappe also dreams of winning an Olympic gold medal with France, so it is possible the 24-year-old could double up next year and compete at Paris 2024 after representing Les Bleus at the European Championship.

"I don't know if I'll be there," Mbappe said. "But, in any case, I hope to be there.

"Everyone knows that I've always dreamed of playing the Olympic Games. It doesn't depend on me. There are a lot of parameters that come into play, and we will have to study them all.

"There is a club, a national team with a Euro before. So we have to talk before. These are all parameters that must be taken into account.

"But of course it would be a dream for me to compete in the Olympics, even more so in Paris."

Joao Cancelo has spent the second half of this season on loan at Bayern Munich, having fallen out of starting XI favour at Manchester City.

The Portugal full-back had penned a contract extension with City in January last year, tying him down to 2027.

But Cancelo's time at Bayern has reportedly not convinced the Germans to pursue a permanent deal, creating uncertainty about his future.

TOP STORY – MADRID TO MAKE CANCELO BID

Real Madrid are interested in a move for Joao Cancelo and will submit a bid of around €60million (£52.8m) to Manchester City for his services, claims Fichajes.

The report claims Madrid are eager to improve their current first-choice full-backs Ferland Mendy and Dani Carvajal, hence the interest in the Portuguese.

Los Blancos like the versatility of Cancelo, who has made 13 appearances with only eight starts since joining Bayern in January.

ROUND-UP

– Florian Plettenberg claims Liverpool's shortlist for midfielders includes West Ham United's Declan Rice, Wolves' Matheus Nunes, Inter's Nicolo Barella and Brighton and Hove Albion's Moises Caicedo having dropped out of the race for Jude Bellingham.

– Barcelona are ready to ramp up their advances to sign Manchester City's Ilkay Gundogan after being impressed by his midweek Champion League display against Bayern Munich, reports Sport.

– Bayern midfielder Ryan Gravenberch has interest from Premier League trio Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United, reports Footmercato.

– Chris Smalling is set to pen a new two-year deal with Roma according to iSport, amid interest from Inter, Juventus and some Premier League clubs.

– Bild claims RB Leipzig midfielder Konrad Laimer will join Bayern on a four-year deal in the off-season. Laimer's Leipzig deal ends at the end of this season.

Finnish entrepreneur Thomas Zilliacus labelled the Manchester United bidding process as a "farce" after withdrawing his takeover offer on Wednesday.

United announced their owners, the Glazer family, were considering offers for the club back in November, including "new investment into the club, a sale, or other transactions".

A pair of bidding rounds followed in the new year as Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani made propositions, though it was said up to eight prospective buyers were interested.

Zilliacus became the third bidder to publicly express his interest in March, wanting to buy 50 per cent of the club – with the other half bought by fans, who would join in the club's decision-making process.

However, Zilliacus has refused to be drawn into a third round of proposals as the 69-year-old believes it would hinder any prospective owner's chances of investing in United for next season.

"I have declined participation in a third bidding round for United," he posted on Twitter. "The bidding is turning into a farce, with [the] Glazers giving no respect to the club.

"The delays will make it very difficult for any new owner to build a winning team for next season.

"Jim Ratcliffe, Sheikh Jassim and myself all were ready to negotiate a deal to buy United. Instead, [the] Glazers chose to start a new round.

"I will not participate in a farce set up to maximise the profit for the sellers at the expense of Manchester United."

Zilliacus' comments came just a day after United great Gary Neville – a vociferous opponent of the current ownership – took to Twitter to lament the Glazers when reports broke over a third round of bidding.

Neville wrote: "Taking it to a 3rd round is just classless. The market has obviously not given them the answer they want!

"It's like they've made a pact to each other that they won't go for less than £1billion each family member. (5 of them). If they stay in after all this it will be toxic!"

Potential buyers, for either the whole club or just a partial stake, must put forward further offers for the next round of takeover talks.

Sheikh Jassim will reportedly again submit a new bid to buy 100 per cent of the club, with Ratcliffe said to be aiming for 69 per cent of the Glazers' current shareholding.

Thibaut Courtois acknowledged Real Madrid were left "bugged" by their inability to put Chelsea to the sword in their Champions League victory.

Los Blancos notched a 2-0 victory over the Blues in the first leg of their quarter-final clash at the Santiago Bernabeu, with goals for Karim Benzema and Marco Asensio.

Yet despite a man advantage for the final third of the game after Ben Chilwell was dismissed for a professional foul on Rodrygo, Madrid failed to make their pressure tell.

Speaking afterwards, former Chelsea goalkeeper Courtois voiced his frustration that his team were unable to inflict more damage ahead of next week's return leg.

"Every time you play a big knockout match, you're left with the sensation that you could have, should have, killed the tie off," he said, as quoted by UEFA.com.

"Chelsea nearly scored right, at the end. This is a good result, but we're bugged by the fact that we didn't score a third or even a fourth goal.

"I hope we don't regret not having added another when we play again next week."

Carlo Ancelotti's hosts were mostly dominant on home turf against Frank Lampard's Blues, who struggled to impose themselves upon the game for long periods.

Yet with Benzema, Luka Modric and Rodrygo among those to spurn chances across the game, Courtois' fear of a comeback in London may not be unfounded.

In his post-match comments to BT Sport, Lampard spoke about looking to channel the "special nights" he enjoyed at Stamford Bridge as a player for the second leg.

Madrid themselves are no stranger to a comeback too though, having defied several poor first-leg performances in last year's Champions League to eventually win the title.

Luciano Spalletti bemoaned Frank Anguissa's "unfair" dismissal as Napoli were dealt another absentee blow in Wednesday's Champions League quarter-final defeat at Milan.

The Napoli midfielder was dismissed for two bookable offences in the space of four second-half minutes as Ismael Bennacer's 40th-minute strike proved the difference in a 1-0 win for Milan at San Siro.

Spalletti was already without injured striker Victor Osimhen, and his replacement Giovanni Simeone, with Anguissa's suspension adding another name to Napoli's growing list of absentees.

The Napoli coach was left unimpressed by referee Istvan Kovacs' decisions but insisted the Serie A leaders have capable replacements heading into next week's return leg in Naples.

"I have nothing to say, commenting after the matches is wasted time, there's no turning back," Spalletti told Sky Sport.

"At this point, every absence is a blow for us, but we have someone who replace him. It's been like this for the whole season, otherwise we wouldn't have the results we have managed.

"We trust the group, but it's a pity we won't have Anguissa because I think it's unfair... It was planned to replace him, I was looking at who to bring on in the three substitutions, I was missing the third.

"The regret is that he played two more minutes while I decided. I'll think about what I did, the referee won't comment, [UEFA Referees' Committee chairman Roberto] Rosetti will do it.

"From what I've seen, Anguissa gets a lot of ball... Let's look at the yellow card for [Piotr] Zielinski and the one not given to [Rade] Krunic."

Milan have caused Napoli issues twice in the space of 10 days, hammering the Partenopei 4-0 in Serie A before overcoming Spalletti's side in Europe.

Stefano Pioli's men are the only team to beat Napoli more than once this season, with two of the Partenopei's five defeats coming against Milan.

The Rossoneri are also the only side to have stopped Napoli scoring in more than one match this term, while Milan have scored six goals this season against Spalletti's side – twice as many as any other team.

Spalletti was still pleased with what his side offered, though, and hailed the efforts of Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan, who made an impressive five saves.

He added: "We had a great attitude, I congratulate the team on how they tried to play the game, even outnumbered. And congratulations to Maignan."

Milan have progressed from seven of their previous nine two-legged ties in the Champions League knockout stages after winning the first clash, while they have lost just one of 10 all-Italian match-ups in Europe.

Yet Napoli captain Di Lorenzo remains confident when Pioli's men visit the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium for Tuesday's second leg.

The Italy international told Amazon Prime Video: "We are a quality squad, to go through you have to win at home, we hope there will be a good atmosphere, as always this year."

Carlo Ancelotti was pleased with Real Madrid's commanding 2-0 win against Chelsea but stressed they must be ready to "fight and sacrifice" in the second leg at Stamford Bridge.

Madrid look set to advance to the Champions League semi-finals for the third consecutive season after they breezed past Frank Lampard's out-of-form side at the Santiago Bernabeu. 

Goals from Karim Benzema and Marco Asensio either side of a red card for Ben Chilwell rounded out a dominant performance from the reigning champions, who will travel to London for the return match next week.

The defeat leaves Chelsea without a goal in four games in all competitions, but Ancelotti remained steadfast that Los Blancos would need to work hard to finish the job in the second leg.

"I know football really well and my players understand that we have another 90 minutes to play, and it will be difficult, and we have to be ready," he told BT Sport.

"We won 2-0, we took advantage of this game, but it's not done yet. Chelsea is a good team with good players, and we have to fight and sacrifice at Stamford Bridge. This is absolutely normal – it's a quarter-final of the Champions League.

"We are satisfied with the game, it was a good game, and now we focus on the next."

Luka Modric's close miss and a squandered late chance from Benzema kept the score down after Chelsea were reduced to 10 men, but the Madrid boss did not feel his side had failed in not finding another goal before the final whistle.

He said: "When we were against 10 men, they put a low block, and it was not easy to find solutions.

"I think we spent a lot of energy in the game trying to press high, and so at the end, we were not so fresh to try to find another goal, but the result and the performance was good."

Wednesday's encounter saw Ancelotti go head-to-head with Lampard in the dugout, with the Madrid boss having coached his opposite number while himself Chelsea manager between 2009 and 2011.

"I have a good memory of him – a fantastic player," Ancelotti said when asked about Lampard. "I hope he will be a fantastic manager but not necessarily next Tuesday."

Vinicius Junior lauded Real Madrid's display against Chelsea on Wednesday as one of their best of the season as the Champions League holders earned a 2-0 first-leg advantage in the quarter-finals.

Madrid had eliminated Chelsea at this stage a year ago, albeit only by the finest of margins.

But this time they were heavy favourites against a side struggling in the bottom half of the Premier League, and the contrast between the two sides was illustrated on the pitch.

Chelsea did have their chances, with Thibaut Courtois making three saves, but opposite number Kepa Arrizabalaga was called into action on eight occasions as well as picking the ball out of his net twice.

Karim Benzema netted the opener when the Chelsea goalkeeper could only parry from Vinicius, whose pass teed up Marco Asensio for a 74th-minute second.

Vinicius was perhaps the star of the show, dominating his match-ups with Reece James and Wesley Fofana as he completed four of seven attempted dribbles and won eight of 13 contested duels.

But the Brazil winger was happy to reflect on a strong performance across the team, even if the tie is not quite yet over.

"We played very well indeed, pressing all the time just like we did at this stage last season," Vinicius said, as reported by UEFA.com. "This was one of our best performances of the season.

"But this is only half-time. There’s a lot left in this tie. We just need to keep calm heads."

Madrid, who played more than half an hour against 10 men after Ben Chilwell was sent off, could only have been frustrated the scoreline was not more one-sided.

"There were lots of spaces for us to push into, and obviously being Real Madrid, we always want to score more goals," Vinicius added.

"We know that an away game against Chelsea can be difficult. Now we just rest a bit and keep a clear head."

Madrid went three years without a Champions League triumph after Vinicius signed, but he is now eyeing up a second straight title as the competition's most successful club aim for their 15th.

"Any player who wears this shirt for Madrid knows how special the Champions League is," he said.

"Especially in the Bernabeu with this fanbase behind us, they light up for this competition.

"If you play for Madrid, you have to be driven by the hunger to play in and win the Champions League."

Chelsea boss Frank Lampard believes they can turn around their Champions League first-leg deficit to Real Madrid, vowing "special things can happen at Stamford Bridge".

The Blues suffered a 2-0 loss at Santiago Bernabeu in the first leg of their quarter-final, and were reduced to 10 men after Ben Chilwell was sent off.

Goals from Karim Benzema and Marco Asensio means it is Carlo Ancelotti's side who head to London for next week's return clash in the driving seat of the tie.

But Lampard is confident his team have what it takes to turn matters around, suggesting they need to rediscover their self-belief in their own quality.

"I'm proud of the 10 men," he told BT Sport. "I think with 10 men, they carved us open. There are some good things, but the result is the reality.

"I just said to the players [in the dressing room], special things can happen at Stamford Bridge. They're a very good team, but we have to believe."

"It's been a difficult period for them. There is a little bit of a lack of belief. I think they players have got to understand how good they are and what they can do.

"Maybe we're a little bit short on that [self-belief], Next week is going to be a fight. There are some mindsets [where] we have to be much more positive.

"I've been involved in those nights at Stamford Bridge. That's next week now, and I'm disappointed with the result, [but] we keep going."

Lampard famously scored in Chelsea's 4-1 second-leg victory against Napoli in the last-16 2012, en-route to lifting the Champions League trophy for the first time.

Stefano Pioli was left wishing Milan capitalised further against 10-man Napoli but insisted no first-leg result would ensure progression to the Champions League semi-final.

Ismael Bennacer's first goal in UEFA's top club competition proved the difference on Wednesday at San Siro as Milan secured a 1-0 lead to defend in Naples in eight days' time.

The Rossoneri perhaps could have compounded Napoli's misery, though, as Milan played the last 15 minutes with a one-man advantage following Frank Anguissa's dismissal for two quickfire bookable offences.

Milan have progressed from seven of their previous nine two-legged ties in the Champions League knockout stages after winning the first clash, though Pioli suggested Napoli could overturn any given deficit.

The Milan coach told Amazon Prime Video: "Napoli got off to a better start than us, we started badly at the beginning, they were more aggressive.

"Then we had a good game, we regret not taking advantage of the numerical superiority in the final [stages].

"It's a result that gives us a chance to go through. No result would have guaranteed qualification.

"Now we will go to Naples with confidence and concentration, we know the difficulties we will encounter."

Milan will head to the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium for Tuesday's quarter-final second leg buoyed with confidence from an impressive record against Napoli this season.

Pioli's side have inflicted two of Napoli's five defeats this term, with Milan the only team to beat the Serie A leaders more than once in the 2022-23 campaign.

The Rossoneri are also the only side to stop Napoli scoring in two separate games this term, keeping Luciano Spalletti's men at bay in Europe and a 4-0 thrashing of the Partenopei in Naples just 10 days ago.

Spalletti will hope for key striker Victor Osimhen to return from injury in time for the return leg, where Bennacer vowed Milan will "work even harder".

"We played well, we tried to do what the coach asked us and it worked," the Algeria international told Amazon Prime Video. 

"There's still one game left, we'll play [Bologna] in-between, we have to recover as best we can.

"Today we had a good attitude. We suffered, then we settled well, we were good man-for-man."

Safe to say Frank Lampard was the only Champions League coach required to give an earnest answer on the eve of this week's matches about the role a late-night US TV host might have had in his appointment.

But then Lampard was also the only Champions League coach expecting to watch along from home with James Corden and the rest as recently as a week ago.

If Thomas Tuchel's appointment at Bayern Munich between the last 16 and the quarter-finals came out of left field, he at least had history in this competition, replacing Lampard as Chelsea boss in 2020-21 and leading them to European glory.

Lampard won the Champions League as a player, of course, in another example of a successful mid-season Chelsea coaching change.

The parallels with that other season of struggle in 2011-12 have not been lost on Lampard. "He mentioned he was in his worst moment at Chelsea," said Enzo Fernandez. "It is a great example for us."

But that likely makes Lampard the only coach to look at Roberto Di Matteo's improbable title run 11 years ago as a blueprint for success moving forward.

In fact, Di Matteo led Chelsea to a top-six Premier League finish and an FA Cup triumph before winning the Champions League. Lampard's side are 11th and out of the domestic cups.

Hopes of a repeat of that greatest win of all are all but gone, too, after Real Madrid's 2-0 victory in the first leg of their last-eight tie.

Lampard's will surely be the only shock Chelsea comeback this season.

The Blues, still under Tuchel, did very nearly overturn a two-goal deficit against Madrid at this stage last season, leading 3-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu before late goals from Rodrygo and Karim Benzema took the eventual champions through.

That was the theme of Madrid's campaign, rarely playing well but having enough in the big moments. The concern for Chelsea is their hosts were again a little below par on Wednesday and this time did not need any of those big moments, deservedly defeating their toothless side.

Madrid scraped past Liverpool and Chelsea last season and are on course to knock out both again this year – with the minimum of fuss. Again getting the better of Manchester City in the next stage may well prove tougher.

Lampard appeared to look back to those famous nights under Di Matteo as he turned to experience for this first leg, making only two changes from the last-16 second leg against Borussia Dortmund but increasing the average age of the XI by two years in introducing Thiago Silva and N'Golo Kante.

"We always want to develop players, we want young players, all these things," he explained to BT Sport. "But at a game of this high level, players like Thiago, N'Golo in the team are a huge lift for us."

That know-how still paled next to Madrid's, however. There were 821 Champions League appearances in the home XI – the second-most in competition history behind another Madrid line-up in the 2018 final.

It was fitting then that Benzema should net the opener in his 149th Champions League game, fifth on the all-time list and in the right place at the right time when Kepa Arrizabalaga could only parry an awkward effort from Vinicius Junior.

Lampard might well have taken a 1-0 defeat at that point. He certainly would have when half-time was reached with Madrid having aimed eight shots on target and then again when Ben Chilwell was sent off with over half an hour remaining.

The game briefly became reminiscent of the 2012 semi-final in Barcelona, where John Terry saw red but Chelsea somehow recovered a 2-2 draw through a combination of brave defending and clinical counter-attacking.

Yet Marco Asensio's second with 74 minutes played, steered through Wesley Fofana's legs, broke their resolve and might well have taken the tie away from Lampard.

This Chelsea team are anything but clinical. They have 41 goals in 41 games this season, going four without scoring – including in two matches under Lampard – for the first time since 1993. The Blues have only netted more than once, as they now must, in 14 of those games.

Failure to buck that trend against Champions League specialists Madrid will mean the end of Chelsea's season.

At that point, as Madrid move on and Lampard attempts to rescue a top-10 position in the Premier League, focus turns to where Todd Boehly goes next, perhaps to who Jimmy Kimmel fancies for the Stamford Bridge hotseat.

It has been another season to remember at Chelsea – for all the wrong reasons.

Ismael Bennacer scored the only goal of the game as Milan secured a slender Champions League quarter-final advantage over 10-man Napoli with a 1-0 win in Wednesday's first leg.

Just over a week after being thrashed 4-0 by Milan in Serie A, Napoli were the dominant force for large parts at San Siro – only for Bennacer to deal a sucker punch after 40 minutes.

The Algeria international's first Champions League goal proved the difference as Napoli, who had Frank Anguissa dismissed in the second half, were unable to respond without injured star striker Victor Osimhen.

Luciano Spalletti will hope to have Osimhen, and his replacement Giovanni Simeone, back fit for the return leg as Napoli bid to overturn a narrow deficit at home next Tuesday.

Rade Krunic's goal-line block denied Khvicha Kvaratskhelia with the goal gaping after his own errant pass teed up the Georgia winger with less than a minute on the clock.

Anguissa and Piotr Zielinksi both forced smart Mike Maignan saves soon after, before Rafael Leao wasted a glorious chance by dragging Milan's first opportunity wide.

Napoli did not heed that warning, though, as Brahim Diaz exchanged passes with Leao and flicked towards Bennacer, who smashed a left-footed strike past the helpless Alex Meret.

Milan should have doubled their lead on the stroke of half-time but Simon Kjaer headed against the crossbar from Theo Hernandez's corner.

Maignan tipped an Eljif Elmas header onto the crossbar after the interval, though Napoli's comeback hopes were halted with 16 minutes remaining when Anguissa was dismissed for two quickfire yellow cards.

Yet Milan still needed late heroics from Maignan, who parried wide from a late Giovanni Di Lorenzo header.

What does it mean? Advantage Milan after profligate Napoli showing

Earlier in the month, Milan handed Napoli their heaviest league defeat since December 2007 and their biggest margin of defeat in a home Serie A game since October 2000.

The Rossoneri's showing here was far less rampant and much more industrious, scoring with their first shot on target after Napoli had nine attempts – three of those testing Maignan – inside the opening 23 minutes.

Milan may not be able to rely on such fortune in the return leg, albeit they will head to Naples with a remarkable record – having lost just one of 10 all-Italian match-ups in Europe (W5 D4).

Brilliant Brahim

Brahim's genius was the key to unlocking the Napoli defence in the first half, spinning to take two players out the game before teeing up Bennacer from Leao's return pass.

That continued Brahim's strong form against Napoli with his third goal involvement when facing the Partenopei – his joint-most against an opponent in all competitions (along with Torino).

Rossoneri rumble Napoli defence again

Napoli have been the dominant force in Italy, and tipped as a European favourite by many, but the Partenopei have been unable to get to grips with Milan's attack this term.

Spalletti's side have conceded six times against Milan in all competitions this campaign, twice as many as they have against any other side (Cremonese, Ajax and Liverpool – all three).

What's next?

Before the return meeting at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium, Napoli host Verona in Serie A on Saturday – three hours after Milan kick off at Bologna.

Real Madrid put one foot into the final four of the Champions League after a 2-0 win over 10-man Chelsea in the first leg of their quarter-final.

Karim Benzema's first-half tap-in put the holders in front at Santiago Bernabeu before Marco Asensio doubled their advantage with just over a quarter-hour to go.

A straight red card for Ben Chilwell after he tugged down Rodrygo in-between compounded a tough trip to Spain for Frank Lampard's men.

Former Blues boss Carlo Ancelotti and his Los Blancos side will wish they had more to show, but will nevertheless head to Stamford Bridge with a healthy advantage for next week's return leg.

Thibaut Courtois denied Joao Felix on the break and Benzema forced a close-range stop from Kepa at the other end inside the first 15 minutes.

Benzema was in the place after 21 minutes, though, capitalising when Kepa parried Vinicius Junior's shot into his path.

Madrid had chances to extend the lead before the break with David Alaba's header almost squirming in five minutes before half-time.

Chelsea's hopes of a comeback after the break felt slim even before Kalidou Koulibaly was forced to hobble off, and Chilwell's dismissal only worsened matters.

Asensio then was on-point to cap another fine European performance from Madrid when he swept home a cut-back delivery in the 74th minute.

Benzema could and perhaps should have made it three in the final stages of injury time, only to push his looping header over the crossbar from nine yards out.

But the hosts are now well on course to extend their superb continental record, though Ancelotti will know more than most the battle is not over yet for his side.