A.C. Milan survived a hard battering from reigning champions Manchester United in Manchester, U.K., today (Thursday) to qualify for the European Cup football final. Milan lost the match one-nil but their two-nil first leg victory gave them a 2-1 aggregate margin and earned them a final place against Ajax Amsterdam in Madrid on May 28.

United's Bobby Charlton scored his team's only goal in the 71st minute. The Manchester fans were jubilant, but not long before -- at the start of the second half -- the match was marred by an ugly incident when the Milan goalkeeper, Fabio Cudicini, was struck on the head by a missile thrown from the crowd.

French referee Machin held up play for five minutes while Cudicini received treatment, and warned that he would abandon the match if there were any similar incidents.

A second scoring attempt by Manchester United was disallowed by the referee when the Milan 'keeper was knocked backwards into his own goal. About 63-thousand people saw the match.