Club Brugge produced the biggest upset of this season's UEFA Champions League so far, defeating Inter Milan 4-3 in an extraordinary encounter at San Siro on Monday night.
Inter came into Matchday 2 as overwhelming favourites, but it was the Belgian champions who claimed their first points of the league phase in their first ever meeting with the Nerazzurri, condemning the Italian side to a fourth consecutive defeat in Europe for the first time in their history.
The night belonged to Nicolò Tresoldi.
The 22-year-old German-Italian striker, who grew up supporting AC Milan, had described the game as personal, telling reporters before kick-off: "It does feel like a derby for me, it has always been my dream to play here at San Siro."
He lived that dream in style.
Unsurprisingly, Tresoldi was officially named UEFA Player of the Match after a flawless performance. The striker scored a hat-trick on his debut at San Siro - 30' pen, 63', 74' - earned a 9.4 match rating, and was directly involved in three of Brugge's four goals.
After receiving the award, he said: "It's a childhood dream. Scoring a hat-trick at San Siro is incredible. I'm a Milan fan, so this stadium means everything to me."
The drama began in the 30th minute when Carlos Forbs, who was electric all night, burst from his own half and was fouled by Hakan Calhanoglu in the box. Tresoldi stepped up and buried the penalty.
Inter responded just before half-time. Federico Dimarco picked out Lautaro Martinez, who used his strength to turn and fire past former Inter keeper Yann Sommer to make it 1-1.
But Tresoldi was not done. In the 63rd minute he restored Brugge's lead with a clinical finish after a rapid counter, and 11 minutes later he completed his hat-trick, reacting quickest after Josep Martinez parried Forbs' effort.
Inter set up a frantic finale. In the 81st minute, Sommer made a world-class save from Petar Sucic, only for Lautaro to pounce on the rebound for his second goal, 2-3.
Just as the comeback seemed on, Brugge struck again. Djed Spence's loose pass was intercepted by Forbs, who released substitute Romeo Vermant. The Belgian forward calmly dinked the ball over Martinez to make it 4-2 in the 87th minute.
There was still time for more. In the 93rd minute, Ange-Yoan Bonny cut inside from the left after a pass from Aleksandar Stankovic and curled a superb finish into the far top corner.
It was 3-4, and San Siro held its breath, but Brugge held firm to secure a famous victory.
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