AC Milan battled to a 4-2 win over Slavia Prague in an entertaining first leg of their Europa League round-of-16 tie at San Siro Stadium on Thursday, with United States attacker Christian Pulisic putting the game away late.

Milan opened the scoring through Oliver Giroud's close-range header from Rafael Leao's cross in the 34th minute before the Czechs equalised when David Doudera's long-range volley went in off the post past keeper Mike Maignan.

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Tijjani Reijnders restored the lead for the hosts with a fine low shot from Alessandro Florenzi's pass, and Ruben Loftus-Cheek headed home to make it 3-1 seconds before half-time, Florenzi assisting again from a corner.

Slavia, down to 10 men in the first half after El Hadji Malick Diouf's red card, pulled one back in the 65th minute through a fierce strike from Ivan Schranz.

Pulisic sealed victory for Milan five minutes from time, stretching out to redirect an attempt on goal by Rafael Leao and nipping it past an onrushing defender from close range to put a bow on the first-leg win.

The goal for Pulisic takes his season total up to nine in all competitions, his most in a single campaign since scoring 11 for Chelsea in 2020-21. He's also added seven assists so far for a total of 16 goal contributions for Milan.

Information from Reuters was used in this report.