Galatasary 3 AC Milan 2

AC Milan threw away their place in the last sixteen of Europe's elite competition with four minutes of madness at the end of this game in Istanbul.

The Italian champions led the tie twice and were overtaking Hertha Berlin for the second automatic place in the second stage with the clock ticking down but Galatasary staged a storming finish to the game and scored twice to dump Milan out of European competition this season. Chelsea's win in London against Hertha and Milan's defeat lef t the Italian club at the bottom of Group H and without a UEFA Cup place.

The championship of last season saw Milan return to European competition after missing out for two seasons but their stay in the Champions league has been a short one.

Many felt Milan lucky last season to overtake SS Lazio to take the Serie A title in the last two matches. Well, their luck ran out last night and they led twice to make the defeat even more disappointing.

Galatasary were 2-1 down but an 86th minute Hakan Sukur header levelled the scores and Milan's nerve failed after a tough match for the Italians.

Sukur went on a 90th minute run and was felled in the penalty area. Umit took the penalty and struck it sweetly into the net to send Milan crashing out of Europe and into crisis.

A 0-0 draw last Sunday with Venezia was marred when defenders Costacurta and Thomas Helveg had a stand up row on the pitch over tactics and there have been persistent rumours of dressing room discord for coach Alberto Zaccheroni to deal with. These same rumours surfaced last year at this time but a good league run at the end of the season saw Milan overhaul the Rome club to quell any long term dissent.

Now the headlines are turning ugly for Milan but veteran striker George Weah had given them the lead in the hostile Istanbul stadium last night when he stretched to turn in a Shevchenko cross.

Galatasary equalised in the 27th minute when Brazilian defender Capone found the target with a low drive through a ruck of players and Milan took the lead which they failed to hold when Giunti hit a shot on the run into the net in the 51st minute. The Turks overtook Milan with this win to claim a UEFA Cup place and join the draw in Friday for the Third Round in Geneva.