In 1870, Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic changed their shirts to red and black stripes as a homage to AC Milan.

In 1972, the club changed its name to AFC Bournemouth as they continued to push towards a more continental look.

On 22 October 2026, the apprentice defeated the master, in spectacular style.

Bournemouth's supporters may soon be running our of adjectives to describe how thrilling their debut European campaign has been, and how barely believable it feels.

Andy Williams' rendition of The Impossible Dream has been played in the build-up to both of their home Europa League fixtures, but Can't Take My Eyes Off You might have been a more appropriate soundtrack on Thursday as AC Milan were put to the sword on the south coast in an eye-catching Cherries display.

Even before the Serie A side were reduced to 10 men, it was Marco Rose's men who were fully in charge of proceedings, with supporters pinching themselves that this was the case.

Rose had been criticised early in his Bournemouth tenure for being too inflexible with his team selection and substitutions, but seems to have hit the right balance in this run of three home games in eight days.

There was a surprise start for on-loan goalkeeper Michele di Gregorio, but the Milan-born stopper, who began his career at city rivals Inter, had kept four clean sheets against AC in the past two seasons in Serie A, and was barely troubled as the visitors failed to muster a shot on target.

Further forward, neither Bafode Diakite nor Ben Gannon-Doak have been in Rose's 'first XI' in the early weeks, but both played important roles against Milan - while Rose, perhaps with one eye on the weekend, also freshened things up with a triple substitution just after the hour mark.

The night's only blemish was a hamstring injury suffered by Alex Toth, one of those three subs - but he gave way to Amine Adli, who put the gloss on a famous occasion as he curled home a free-kick for Bournemouth's third.

When that went in, the home fans taunted Milan's manager by singing "Ruben Amorim, it's happened again", in reference to their successful results during his tenure at Manchester United.

After three successive goal-fests at Old Trafford - two 3-0 routs and last season's spectacular 4-4 draw - a resurgent Bournemouth are probably one of the last teams that under-pressure United boss Michael Carrick may have wanted to face when the sides meet there on Sunday.

But for his Cherries counterpart, to raid the Andy Williams back catalogue again, these are truly Days Of Wine And Roses.