Liverpool dare AC Milan in Champions League thriller

 Old Champi­ons League foes reunite in today’s league phase opener, as AC Milan and Liverpool kick off their latest top-level European adventures under the bright lights of San Siro.

The two former continental champions will play their first Champions League games under new management this week, and both Arne Slot and Paulo Fonse­ca have some recent wrongdoings to rectify.

Before passing the Anfield torch over to Slot, Jurgen Klopp succeeded in his quest to bring Champions League football back to the Liver­pool faithful, albeit with a third-placed Premier League finish rather than the Europa League crown that many foresaw at the start of the season.

Between now and the end of January, the six-time Europe­an champions will engage in a handful of blockbuster ties in the new-look league phase; Anfield showdowns against reigning champions Real Madrid and Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen are particular highlights.

The Reds make the trek to San Siro with four wins under their belt from their last five away games versus Italian clubs in European competition, but they were memorably sent packing by Atalanta BC in last year’s Europa League quarters and were a shadow of their usual selves at the weekend.

After winning each of their first three Pre­mier League games of the season without conced­ing a single goal, Liverpool slumped to a humbling 1-0 loss to Notting­ham Forest courtesy of an exqui­site Callum Hudson-Odoi strike, as the former Chelsea wonderkid punished Liverpool’s alarming profligacy in front of goal.

While this week’s visitors to San Siro suffered their first defeat of 2024-25 at the weekend, AC Milan coincidentally got up and running at the fourth attempt, having failed to take maximum points in any of their first three Serie A showdowns under Paulo Fonseca.

The Rossoneri boss now has an extremely tough act to follow in the Champions League, being just the second Portuguese man to take charge of an Italian club in the competition after Jose Mourinho, who masterminded Inter Milan’s run to the 2009-10 title.

Today’s hosts will also pit their wits against Real Ma­drid, Leverku­sen and Girona in league phase action, as well as Club Brug­ge, Dinamo Zagreb, Slovan Bratislava and Red Star Belgrade, but the Rossoneri fans will hope that revenge is the first dish on the menu in midweek.

The 2005 miracle of Istanbul was already avenged in the 2006- 07 Champions League final, but Liverpool emerged victorious in both group-stage matches during the 2021-22 season, where cult hero and now-Milan outcast Divock Origi was one of the scorers in a 2-1 win at San Siro.

Despite having a handful of training sessions under his belt before the visit of Forest, Liv­erpool new boy Federico Chie­sa did not make the squad for the Reds’ lat­est Premier League game, as Slot is being careful, especially with his fitness.

A debut for the Italian attacker in his homeland has not been ruled out, but the tight turn­around means that he is still a se­rious doubt for the trip to Milan, where Harvey Elliott is definitely out due to his foot fracture.

Neither Cody Gakpo nor Darwin Nunez had the desired impact up front after coming off the bench on Saturday, but with a little over 72 hours in between matches, Slot will certainly con­sider freshening up his starting XI with the introductions of the attacking duo.

Unless any last-minute knocks force his hand, Fonseca will sure­ly stick with the same winning formula from the weekend, as Abraham keeps new signing Al­varo Morata at bay to join fellow erstwhile Chelsea men Pulisic and Ruben Loftus-Cheek in the XI.-SportsMole

Fixtures

Juventus vs. PSV

Young Boys vs Aston Villa

AC Milan vs Liverpool

Bayern vs Dinamo Zagreb

Real Madrid vs Stuttgart

Sporting Lis­bon vs Lille

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