With a trip to San Siro to play AC Milan in the Champions League upon us, Liverpool are set to play Italian opposition for an eighth consecutive season.
While a flight to Italy won’t be unusual for the squad – Federico Chiesa especially, who could make his Liverpool debut back in his home country – the Reds are facing an unprecedented European campaign.
With the new ‘league phase’ in place, it means there will be no return match at Anfield against Milan and the hosts will be a tough team to beat.
For Arne Slot‘s side, this isn’t necessarily a ‘must-win’ match but there is extra pressure on the team to bounce back, given their poor performance against Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
Return to Italy
This is the eighth successive season that the Reds have faced Italian opposition. Home and away they have faced clubs from Italy 41 times – they have won 19 and lost 18.
The 5-0 success at Atalanta in 2020 is the biggest win by an English club away to Italian opposition in European
Away to Italian teams, Liverpool have won eight, drawn two and lost nine. Of their last five away games in Italy, the Reds have won four of the last five.
In the seven games Liverpool have won in Italy as the away team, they have conceded just once in total.
Only four of the starting XI in the last fixture between the teams, in December 2021, are registered for the league phase of this season’s competition. Those players are Alisson, Ibrahima Konate, Kostas Tsimikas and Mo Salah – Joe Gomez and Conor Bradley also appeared from the bench.
The Reds played successive European games at San Siro that season as they won 2-0 against Internazionale in the knockout phase of the Champions League.
This will be Liverpool’s fifth visit to San Siro. They lost to Inter Milan 3-0 in 1965 but defeated them in 2008 (1-0) and 2022 (2-0), and beat AC Milan (2-1) in 2021.
A night of round numbers
A loss today would be Liverpool’s 100th in European competition.
Dominik Szoboszlai could play his 50th Liverpool game while Darwin Nunez is in line to make his 100th Reds appearance.
Diogo Jota’s next game will be his 150th for the club and Virgil van Dijk is in line to play his 50th game for Liverpool in Europe.
Federico Chiesa could make his Reds debut while Trey Nyoni could play his first European game for the Reds.
Goalscoring memories
Salah has scored 47 goals in 76 European appearances for the Reds.
Nine of Salah’s Liverpool goals have come in 16 appearances against Italian teams. He has scored in his last two outings at San Siro.
In fact, Salah has scored in six of his last seven appearances in the Champions League, scoring eight goals in that period.
Nunez has netted nine times in his 18 games in Europe for the club – a goal tonight will see him reach 10.
This season’s scorers
AC Milan: Pulisic 2, Abraham 1, Fofana 1, Hernandez 1, Morata 1, Okafor 1, Pavlovic 1, Rafael Leao 1
Liverpool: Diaz 3, Salah 3, Jota 1
* Stats courtesy of LFC statistician Ged Rea (@ged0407).
