AC Milan's debacle in European return highlights issues under new coach Ruben Amorim

ROME (AP) — AC Milan used to rule in Europe. These days, the Rossoneri hardly put up a fight.

After missing out completely on last season’s continental competitions, Milan is in crisis again after kicking off its Europa League campaign by losing 2-0 at home to Benfica.

The seven-time European champion was whistled off the field after Wednesday's defeat.

“We’re creating more problems for ourselves when we have the ball than when the opponent has it,” said new Milan coach Ruben Amorim — who lasted just 14 months at Manchester United in his previous job. “We’re not creating.”

Gonçalo Ramos, the Portugal forward who was signed from Paris Saint-Germain for a club-record fee of more than 70 million euros ($80 million) and was the most expensive player of the entire Serie A transfer market, has gone three straight matches without even putting a shot on goal.

Ramos — who was a productive backup striker as PSG won consecutive Champions League titles — has scored only one goal for Milan, which came in Serie A against last-place Venezia.

Amorim was hired after Milan cleaned house and fired coach Massimiliano Allegri and chief executive Giorgio Furlani when last season’s campaign ended with the club missing out on a Champions League berth by one point.

Amorim prefers an attacking style that comes in sharp contrast with Allegri’s defensive tactics. He acknowledged after Milan’s first ever loss to Benfica — in seven matches stretching back to the clubs’ first meeting in the 1963 European Cup final — that many of Milan’s players don’t fit in with his style of soccer.

Milan has struggled particularly in first halves — having conceded two first-half goals at Lazio on Saturday before Diego Moreira struck back with a second-half brace to secure a draw.

“I don’t know if it’s a mental issue, but it’s the second match in a row where in the first half we're not in the game,” said Amorim, who has come under criticism for his lineup choices.

Stretching back to last season, Milan has lost four of its last home games in all competitions — conceding at least two goals in all four defeats.

Amorim hasn’t relied much on the 41-year-old former Ballon d’Or winner Luka Modric, who never left the bench — not even to warm up for a possible substitution appearance — against Benfica.

“I’ve got to rotate the squad, especially with a 40-year-old player,” Amorim said.

Amorim has preferred the physicality provided by United States midfielder Yunus Musah in midfield to Modric’s passing abilities and field vision.

Christian Pulisic has still not started a match for Milan this season after sustaining a bone bruise along with microfractures to his tibia and fibula when the U.S. exited the World Cup in a loss to Belgium in July.

Some of the few positive notes for Milan have been the play of 19-year-old attacking midfielder Alphadjo Cisse, who scored in a 1-1 draw with Juventus this month and could be tapped for an Italy debut; and Moreira, the Belgium winger signed for 50 million euros ($58.5-million) from Strasbourg.

In Serie A, Milan has won two of its opening four matches and trails early leaders Roma and Inter Milan by four points.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a special adviser to Milan’s American owner Gerry Cardinale, has been absent from the team for long stretches lately, having shown up at the club’s training center this week for the first time in six months.

Antonio Conte, the coach who has won titles at Juventus, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Napoli, was in the stands for the Benfica loss.

Could Conte — who historically does not like to step into jobs mid-season — be an option if Cardinale decides to remove Amorim?

If the losses keep piling up at the San Siro, perhaps so.

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

AC Milan's Koni De Winter goes for the header with Benfica's Jhon Duran during the Europa League opening phase soccer match between AC Milan and Benfica in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

AC Milan's head coach Ruben Amorim gestures during the Europa League opening phase soccer match between AC Milan and Benfica in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

AC Milan's Mario Gila stands at the end of the Europa League opening phase soccer match between AC Milan and Benfica in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

AC Milan's head coach Ruben Amorim gestures during the Europa League opening phase soccer match between AC Milan and Benfica in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

An unprecedented surge in border crossings over the past decade reshaped America: Millions of people from more than 150 countries arrived, bringing the U.S. immigrant population to its highest levels ever.

Now, data obtained exclusively by The Associated Press paints a picture of who these migrants are, where they went, and what happened after the border.

Some went to cities that have long been magnets for immigrants — New York, Miami — but increasingly, others found their way to smaller cities with less developed immigrant footholds. Blocks, neighborhoods and entire cities were remade in places like Elkhart, Indiana; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Dodge City, Kansas.

And while the vast majority of migrants traditionally were from Mexico, this surge saw people from an astonishing number and diversity of countries: India, Ecuador, Ghana.

Via a Freedom of Information Act request, AP obtained federal records on the self-reported destinations of 4.5 million migrants released in the United States after crossing the Mexican border — both legally and illegally — between October 2018 and July 2025.

Migrants must provide U.S. Customs and Border Protection with a street address. AP obtained their destination ZIP codes, citizenship by country, ages, genders, and the dates and border regions where they encountered authorities.

Some probably never arrived at the addresses they gave. Authorities lacked resources to check, though migrants must report truthfully to pursue their cases in court and get work permits. Some have moved elsewhere in the United States or left the countr y, voluntarily or involuntarily. But many have stayed put.

Data on their initial destinations after the southern border provides both a sweeping and an unusually granular look at how the immigration surge — one that peaked during President Joe Biden's administration and was a major reason voters returned his predecessor, Donald Trump, to the White House — is playing out today.

Here are some key takeaways from the data.

The Border Patrol encountered migrants from 174 countries in one year alone, a sharp departure from earlier periods when they were nearly all Mexican and Central American. The growth of social media and new migration routes was key in bringing people from around the world. Cincinnati, for example, saw a large number of arrivals from West Africa, Uzbekistan and India.

Some cities — ones that for generations have had robust international communities — were further diversified by the range of countries from which people arrived.

New York City’s Queens borough registered at least 25 nationalities with significant arrivals, including five countries that each sent more than 7,000 people: Ecuador, China, Colombia, Venezuela and India.

Philadelphia had 11 nationalities with at least 1,000 new arrivals, led by Brazil, Haiti and the Dominican Republic but also including Russia and Venezuela. The city’s metro area also saw more than 1,000 migrants from Georgia.

While Florida was the most popular state overall, Latin American immigrants increasingly looked elsewhere for more promising job prospects and better quality of life. Many turned to places with small but established communities of immigrants from their homelands.

For Cubans, nine of the top 10 destination ZIP codes were in Florida, but people of the Caribbean nation also flocked to Louisville, Kentucky; Grand Island, Nebraska; and Odessa, Texas. Colombians went to the Denver suburb of Aurora. Paterson, New Jersey, was the top pick among Peruvians. Some Venezuelans headed to the growing suburbs south of Salt Lake City; others to pockets of Atlanta, Chicago and Denver.

Nearly six of every 10 migrants released at the border were women and children, a dramatic shift from a few years earlier when migrants were predominantly men.

The change is visible in many places and across nationalities, but some stand out. Tulsa, Oklahoma, attracted Mexican women and children. Ecuadorian women and children went to Spring Valley, New York. Guatemalan women were drawn to Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Chinese migrants, who trekked by hundreds nightly in California's mountainous border with Mexico, largely gravitated to two places: New York City, especially the Queens and Brooklyn boroughs, and a cluster of neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area.

Immigration arrests have hit some areas that ranked among the most popular destinations for migrants in recent years, including Miami and New York. Others that saw a large migrant influx have gotten less attention from authorities, including California’s Silicon Valley; Madison, Wisconsin; and Stamford, Connecticut.

Harounat Sarre, a Mauritanian immigrant, pauses in the parking lot of Touba Tedoungal African restaurant in Lockland, Ohio, Friday, July 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Vincent Wilson, left, who takes in donated, broken bikes and offers them up to the community for anyone who helps fix them up, repairs a bike with the help of a seven-year-old boy at Bikes and Stuff in Lockland, Ohio, Friday, July 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Venezuelans gather outside a food truck on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, in Midvale, Utah. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Moussa Sow, a Mauritanian immigrant, stands at the parking lot of Touba Tedoungal African restaurant in Lockland, Ohio, Friday, July 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

FILE - A group of people, including many from China, walk along the wall after crossing the border with Mexico to seek asylum, Oct. 24, 2023, near Jacumba, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)