Bournemouth
AC MilanEighteen years ago AFC Bournemouth started a League Two season on minus 17 points, and plenty of people wondered whether the club would survive at all. On Thursday 22 October 2026 they host AC Milan, seven times champions of Europe. Bournemouth vs AC Milan is Matchday 3 of the Europa League league phase, at the Vitality Stadium, with kick-off at 20:00 UK time (15:00 ET). It's the biggest night the old ground has ever had.
From minus 17 to the Europa League
This is Bournemouth's first European campaign. They earned it by finishing sixth in the 2025/26 Premier League, the high point of the Andoni Iraola years. Iraola has since moved on, and Marco Rose, who agreed in April 2026 to take over, is the man taking them into Europe.
In 2008/09 the Cherries were docked 17 points after going into administration and spent the season fighting to stay in the Football League. Promotion to the top flight came in 2015. Now the fixture list reads Real Sociedad, Sturm Graz, AC Milan, Sparta Prague and Celta Vigo, and Milan are coming to a stadium that holds a little over 11,000. Not many people in Boscombe would have bet on that.
The start helped. On 17 September Rose's side won 2-1 at Real Sociedad, the club's first European result, and a good one. Sturm Graz visit Dean Court on Thursday 15 October, so the Cherries get a home game in this competition before Milan turn up a week later.
The 36-team format gives everyone eight different opponents. The top eight go straight to the round of 16, ninth to 24th go into a play-off round, and the rest are out. Anything against Milan would make the top 24 look very realistic before the November trips to Prague and Vigo.
The league form is a worry
Bournemouth have struggled in the Premier League. After six games they had three points, all from draws, sat 18th, and had just been beaten 5-1 at Chelsea on 10 October. Marcus Tavernier, with three league goals, has been the best of the attackers, and Evanilson scored at Stamford Bridge.
So Europe has turned into a strange kind of refuge from the relegation fight. There's less pressure on these nights, and the players have looked freer in this competition. Rose's teams at his previous clubs pressed high and hard, and in a ground where the crowd sits right on top of the pitch, that can feel suffocating for visitors.
He has new options too. Centre-back António Silva came from Benfica, Juanlu Sánchez from Sevilla at right-back and striker Álvaro Rodríguez from Elche, while Italian goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio is on loan from Juventus. A keeper who knows Serie A forwards this well could come in handy on Thursday.
What Milan bring
Milan are the bigger club by a distance, but they haven't looked unbeatable. Their Europa League campaign opened with a 2-0 home defeat by Benfica at San Siro on 16 September, and they visit Salzburg on 15 October before travelling to Dorset. In Serie A they're unbeaten after six games, with three wins and three draws, one of them 1-1 at Juventus.
It was a busy summer. Rafael Leão left for Galatasaray, Gonçalo Ramos arrived from Paris Saint-Germain and Diego Moreira from Strasbourg. Moreira has three goals and leads the team in scoring, and Christian Pulisic and Adrien Rabiot are still central to how they play. Ruben Amorim is the head coach. The clubs have never met in a competitive game, so this is the first competitive Bournemouth vs AC Milan ever.
BournemouthAC MilanHow I see it going
Bournemouth's plan more or less writes itself: start fast, use the noise and press Milan's build-up until somebody panics. The risk is the counter. Milan have pace and finishing in wide areas, and a home side that gets carried away against them will be picked off.
Milan will want a calm first 20 minutes, keeping the ball until the crowd goes quiet. If they manage that, their quality should show. Then again, Benfica beat them at San Siro, and a team that won in San Sebastián isn't going to freeze because the opposition shirt is famous.
On paper Milan are better, and Bournemouth's league form would normally make this an easy call. But nobody at Dean Court has had a European night like this before, and I can't see the home side running short of energy. I'll go 1-1.
How to watch Bournemouth vs AC Milan
TNT Sports shows the Europa League in the UK under a UEFA deal that runs to 2027, and Paramount+ has the rights in the United States. Fixture details and match centres are on the official UEFA Europa League site.
DAMITV streams the match free in HD, with no signup, on our Premier League streams hub, which carries English clubs in Europe as well. Milan fans can follow it on the AC Milan live stream page or Serie A streams, and Spanish speakers can use the Europa League en vivo page. Celtic host Celta Vigo in the same slot; our Celtic vs Celta Vigo preview covers that one.
