Oliver Skipp will always remember his first Champions League start at the San Siro - but he will not want to recall the moment he passed the ball to Richarlison before the Tottenham striker had even come on.
Spurs were beaten 1-0 at AC Milan in the first-leg of their Champions League last-16 tie courtesy of Brahim Diaz's first-half strike. However, Antonio Conte's side had chances to score and emerged with plenty of positives heading into the second-leg at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next month.
Someone who impressed for Spurs on the night was Skipp, who deputised for the injured Rodrigo Bentancur in midfield, with the Uruguayan out until the end of the season with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament. That gave 22-year-old Skipp a chance to impress and cement his place in the XI.
It proved to be a memorable evening for the former Norwich loanee, who stood out alongside Pape Matar Sarr in central midfield as he started a Champions League tie for the first time. Skipp had a 93% passing accuracy, completed all of his tackles and created two chances for his teammates.
But Skipp will not want to remember one of his passes that he did not complete. The midfielder decided to pass the ball out towards the left touchline, only to realise his intended target, Richarlison, was not even on the pitch yet.
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The Brazilian was all stripped to come on in his Tottenham kit, but was still stood off the pitch waiting for the ball to go out of play. Skipp had seen Richarlison out of the corner of his eye and chose to reverse the ball out to the left, but Milan were able to intercept and easily win the ball back as no-one was in that area of the pitch yet.
Whilst that was a moment to forget, Skipp could be forgiven with a positive performance over the rest of the game. At full-time, he spoke about his display and felt that his side reacted well to Diaz's early strike.
"I enjoyed every minute of it. It wasn't the result we wanted but there's a second leg to come," Skipp told BT Sport. "We'll take the positives from that. It's nice to make my debut from the start [in the Champions League], it's something you always dream of as a kid.
"It wasn't the best start, after 10 minutes maybe just before. It was a goal we didn't need to concede, but I think we reacted well. Neither team created too many chances. There's a second leg and there's a deficit to come back from.
"I think we would have delivered [faith shown by Conte] if we had won! Me and Pape did our jobs in midfield, things we could have better and things we did well, but I think it was nice to gain the manager's trust and hopefully we repaid it. We have to keep positive, it's only the first leg. We know with our fans at home we'll be a dangerous side."
