AC Milan vs Liverpool Preview

Liverpool’s 2024/25 Champions League journey will begin this Tuesday when they travel to the San Siro to face AC Milan.

Both teams are among the biggest teams in this competition with Real Madrid being the only side with more European Cup/Champions League titles than AC Milan (seven) and Liverpool (six). Apart from being European royalty, both sides have a lot of history in this tournament and they have both claimed a trophy at each other’s expense, with Liverpool’s famous comeback that night in Istanbul in 2005 still talked about before Milan enacted their revenge two years later in Athens.

That 2007 win was the Rossoneri’s last triumph in one of Europe’s three major club competitions. Since then, things have gone severely downhill for AC Milan when playing English clubs. The Italian giants have won just three of the 21 encounters that have ensued (D6, L12), including a pair of defeats to Liverpool in the 2021/22 Champions League group stage.

The San Siro has also recently lost its touch of being one of the continent’s fortresses with Milan winning less than half of their previous 18 home games in European competition (W7, D3, L8).

After a poor start to life under new manager Paulo Fonseca where Milan failed to win any of their opening three games (D2, L1), things improved at the weekend as they recorded a 4-0 win over Venezia. The reverse can be said for his counterpart Arne Slot, who began life on Merseyside with three consecutive wins without conceding until they suffered a massive upset when going down 1-0 against Nottingham Forest at the weekend.

The Dutchman is now tasked with re-introducing the Reds to the Champions League after last season’s stint in the Europa League. There may be some nerves in the camp since that endeavour ended in Italy against eventual champions Atalanta. Liverpool did win the matchup in Bergamo 1-0, though, which made it four wins from their last five trips to Italy (L1).