AC Milan secured a spot in the Champions League knockout stage on Tuesday despite being held to a 1-1 draw at BATE Borisov following Renan Bressan's second-half penalty for the host.
Milan forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored in the 22nd minute to reward the Serie A champions' dominance until teammate Ignazio Abate gave away a penalty, which Bressan converted in the 55th minute.
However, a draw was enough to advance to the round of 16 after Group H leader Barcelona beat Viktoria Plzen 4-0, putting the Spanish and Italian giants through.
Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri and his team had wanted to win for teammate Antonio Cassano, who has been in hospital after falling ill on the flight back to Milan following its 3-2 win at Roma on Saturday.
The visiting fans had banners showing their support for the stricken striker, while Kevin-Prince Boateng celebrated Ibrahimovic's goal with a shirt of Cassano's.
''We made a lot of mistakes, and when you do that then it can happen that you concede a goal or penalty,'' Allegri said. ''It's normal that you have to be more clinical in finishing a game off, but we didn't do that.
''What was important, though, was to qualify.''
Milan started brightly and could have gone in front as early as the sixth minute. Ibrahimovic played a rapid one-two with Robinho on the edge of the box but saw his shot crash off the crossbar.
BATE was enjoying several promising counterattacks but lacked the quality to break decisively through the Milan defense.
However, in the 15th minute, Bressan got himself into good position but blazed wildly over.
Moments later Milan should have gone in front. Alberto Aquilani's header bounced off Marko Simic's back and fell nicely to Robinho, who tapped it back to Aquilani but his shot was wide.
Ibrahimovic tried his luck from distance in the 17th minute but Aleksandr Gutor punched clear. The Milan striker again forced the BATE goalkeeper into action seconds later, with a free kick from the edge of the area which Gutor got down quickly to parry away to safety.
Ibrahimovic finally got his goal shortly afterwards. Robinho raced clear down the right flank and crossed to the Sweden striker, who struck the ball into the bottom left corner for his third goal in as many games.
BATE almost restored parity straight away but Milan goalkeeper Christian Abbiati pulled of a fantastic save to deny Maksim Skavysh.
Robinho could have doubled Milan's lead shortly before the break as he beat the offside trap and raced down the field before rounding the Bate goalkeeper and smashing his effort off the outside of the right post.
The Brazilian had another chance minutes into the second half but he fired straight at Gutor.
Milan then handed the hosts an equalizer, as Abate hauled down BATE midfielder Artem Kontsevoi in the area in the 55th minute. Bressan fired a perfect penalty into the bottom left corner and, although Abbiati dived the right way, he could not keep it out.
''It doesn't make any sense for me to say now whether the referee made a mistake,'' Allegri said. ''I can only say that the team had a good game but we lacked the final product. When it all seemed so easy, we couldn't manage to close the game and they punished us.''
It almost went from bad to worse for Milan as Abbiati had to react smartly to keep out a wonderful effort from Dmitri Baga.
Milan upped the pressure but could find no way past Gutor, who pulled off smart stops to twice deny Ibrahimovic.
Kevin-Prince Boateng came close to giving Milan the lead in the 77th minute but Gutor was on hand to deny his first shot and Simic - ideally placed just short of the goal line - cleared his second, from the rebound.
Milan appealed for a penalty, claiming the ball had hit Simic's arm, but the referee waved play on.
BATE came close to securing a first ever Champions League victory - in its 10th game - in extra time. A good counterattack from the Belarusian side ended in a shot from Skavysh from just outside the area, but Abbiati parried his near-post drive.
