After edging a close first half at the San Siro, Spurs needed two excellent saves from Heurelho Gomes and some resolute defending in a second 45 minutes which was dominated by the Italian hosts. It was a spiteful second half, too, with Vedran Corluka carried off with a nasty-looking injury following Mathieu Flamini's two-footed challenge.

However, it was Harry Redknapp's side who had the last word when Aaron Lennon led a lightning-fast break before feeding Crouch to sweep home in the 80th minute. Zlatan Ibrahimovic thought he had equalised in added time only to have his goal disallowed.

Crouch said: "It was a great game of football, I thought we deserved the win in the end. I thought we limited them to not many chances and I think we were the better side. It's a fantastic achievement.

"I just had to keep up with Azza (Lennon) at the end!"

Lennon said: "When I beat the first defender and saw Crouchy was free I was always going to put it across to him."

Angry scenes at the full-time whistle surrounded Milan midfielder Gennaro Gattuso's head-butt on Spurs coach Joe Jordan.

Crouch said on Sky Sports 2: "He always seems to get involved, he got involved with me as well as Joe Jordan."

Redknapp said: "It was a fantastic performance, the lads were absolutely brilliant.

"We hit them on the break and got the goal and it was well-deserved tonight."

Asked about Flamini's challenge on Corluka, Redknapp - watching a replay for the first time - said: "That is a red card all day. How has he not got a red card for that?

"It's an absolute disgrace, they (UEFA) should look at that, surely, and do something about it. It's a dangerous, dangerous tackle.

"They lost their heads a bit at the end."

Redknapp joked about Gattuso's spat with Jordan: "There would be only one winner there - Joe!

"I'd have my money on Joe. Of all the people to pick on, don't pick on Joe."