When AC Milan last won the Champions League in 2007, Bournemouth were finishing 18th in League One. Back then, they would not have dreamt of a night like this. And yet it’s happened.

If last week’s win over Sturm Graz was a celebration of how far have Bournemouth come, then try this one for size.

Bournemouth weren’t that great against Sturm Graz, but got the job done to win 3-0 as they hosted a Europa League match for the first time.

AC Milan are not what they once were, as you can deduce from their mere presence in this competition rather than the Champions League. But they’re still AC Milan.

Ruben Amorim has made a decent start to life in Serie A, where his side are among a quartet of teams unbeaten after seven games, but he was doomed in England while in charge of a free-falling Manchester United and might just be cursed on these shores.

All he could do was laugh when the home crowd chanted “Ruben Amorim, it’s happened again” as Bournemouth closed in on a famous victory.

The man advantage helped – Milan keeper and captain Mike Maignan saw red for pushing Tyler Adams in the face in the box – as did the relatively lesser weight of pressure and expectation compared to last week, but this was an encouraging performance from a Bournemouth side finding their new identity under Marco Rose.

By half time they had 10 shots to Milan’s one. Yes, their two goals were penalties – and Amorim might not have been best pleased about either, one awarded for a close-distance hand ball and the other for Maignan’s moment of madness – but their advantage was well earned.

Playing with no fear, Bournemouth had their tails up all the way to the final whistle. Amine Adli’s delightful free kick made it 3-0 and there were chances for a fourth, with Rayan forcing a smart save from sub keeper Lorenzo Torriani – who Milan had originally appeared to try sending on without taking anyone off in the wake of Maignan’s dismissal – and Adrien Truffert smashing a powerful strike wide.

Milan barely laid a glove on Bournemouth and their familiar Italian keeper Michele Di Gregorio. No shots on target at all for the visitors in the 90 minutes summed it up.

The home crowd had unfurled a tifo exclaiming “How did we end up here?” ahead of kick off. Perhaps it should be Milan asking themselves how they ended up here just as much as Bournemouth.

There will be those who use this result to knock Serie A as a league, not as competitive as it used to be. The Italian top flight’s failure to produce a single winning team on matchday two in the Champions League furthered that theory, but all four of their representatives bounced back with a win on matchday three this week – most notably Como against Manchester United.

Thus, this game should simply be appreciated as Bournemouth finding their groove on a night that will go down in their history.

They may have had more important victories in their history. But it would be hard to say they’ve ever had a better result than this.