Pioli blown away by Milan's dramatic 24-penalty shootout

Stefano Pioli admits to experiencing a rollercoaster of emotions during Milan’s latest outing as he hints at a distaste for penalty shootouts.

It was like a never-seen-before sight when AC Milan edged past Rio Ave in the Europa League play-off after a thrilling 9-8 victory in penalty shootouts, which saw a total of 24 shots being taken.

Alexis Saelemaekers gave his side the lead in the second half which was then canceled out by Francisco Geraldes’s strike. Extra time saw Rio Ave get the upper hand until Hakan Calhanoglu‘s yet again leveled the scoreline from the spot at minute 122.

Milan won the subsequent penalties 9-8, a scoreline Europe saw for the first time in 17 years.

Even someone as experienced as Stefano Pioli was taken by surprise by the result, but he was more than happy after his side got the job done.

“I’d never seen anything like it, but that’s football,” Pioli said after the full-time whistle at Estadio dos Arcos, as Football Italia reports.

“It’s difficult to control your emotions in a situation like that because we went from possibly winning to possibly losing in the blink of an eye.

“This is also why they say a penalty shoot-out is a lottery. We did mentally to hold out, as we are a young side and it was by no means easy to maintain that grit and prove we could suffer for the result.”