AC Milan face Stade Rennais for the first time in their history tonight in the Europa League play-off round first leg at San Siro.
Milan may not have faced Rennes, but they have played 32 times against opponents from France across all competitions. Of those 32 games 14 were wins which is less than half, while eight were draws and 10 were therefore defeats.
The most recent games against Ligue 1 opposition came this season against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League: a 3-0 away defeat and a 2-1 home win.
Our pre-match preview gives you the full insight ahead of the game, while below are the best stats ahead of the game…
➤ Milan and Rennes will meet for the first time in a competitive fixture, with Milan progressing through four of their last five knockout ties against French opposition in major European competition, the most recent of which saw Milan eliminate Lyon at the quarter-final stage of the 2005-06 UEFA Champions League.
➤ This will be Rennes’s fifth game against an Italian opponent in the UEFA Europa League, after two group-stage meetings with Udinese in the 2011-12 season (D1 L1) and then with Lazio in the 2019-20 campaign (W1/D1), with Rennes winning 2-0 at home in the most recent of those.
➤ Only Red Bull Salzburg (4) scored fewer goals than Milan (5) in the 2023-24 UEFA Champions League group stage, despite only four teams having more shots than the Rossoneri (95).
➤ Milan underperformed their expected-goals tally by a larger margin (-4.9) than any other team in the UEFA Champions League group stage.
➤ After winning away to both Panathinaikos on MD3 and then to Maccabi Haifa on MD5 of the 2023-24 Europa League group stage, Rennes could now win three consecutive away games in major European competition for the very first time.
➤ Olivier Giroud has been directly involved in 11 goals in 9 Europa League knockout stage appearances (7 goals, 4 assists).
➤ The Frenchman (37y, 138d) could become the fourth-oldest player to score in the knockout stages of the competition after Jorge Molina (38y, 323d), Walter Samuel (37y, 332d) and Miroslav Klose (37y, 261s).
