AC Milan are back in Champions League action tonight and a sold out San Siro beckons for the visit of Tottenham Hotspur.
It will be the first competitive meeting between the Rossoneri and their London opponents since the 2010-11 campaign in the same competition, but both sides come into the game in patchy form and with injury difficulties to deal with.
You can read our pre-match preview here, while below are the best stats ahead of the game…
➤ This will be the fifth competitive meeting between Milan and Tottenham Hotspur, with the English side unbeaten across each of the previous four (W2 D2).
➤ Milan and Spurs last faced each other in the 2010-11 campaign, when they were drawn together at this exact stage of the UEFA Champions League. Spurs won 1-0 on aggregate across both games in the Round of 16, with Peter Crouch scoring the only goal of the tie.
➤ Spurs have played at the Giuseppe Meazza on three previous occasions in the UEFA Champions League, with their one victory coming against AC Milan (two defeats v Internazionale). 60% of their goals there have been scored by Gareth Bale (3/5), whose hat-trick in October 2010 versus Inter is one of only two instances of a visiting player scoring a hat-trick at the Giuseppe Meazza (also Rivaldo for Barcelona in 2000).
➤ Spurs manager Antonio Conte has won eight of his last nine games as a manager against AC Milan (L1), between 2013 and 2021. Indeed, he has seen his side win and keep a clean sheet in each of his last three trips to face the Rossoneri away from home (2-0 in 2014, 2-0 in 2019 and 3-0 in 2021 – all in Serie A).
➤ Milan will play their first match in the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League since the 2013-14 season, when they were beaten 1-5 on aggregate by Atlético Madrid in the Round of 16. The Italian side have failed to score in nine of their last 14 matches in the knockout stages of the competition.
➤ Spurs boss Antonio Conte will be looking to win consecutive away games in the UEFA Champions League for just the second time in his managerial career, having last done so back in the 2012-13 campaign while in charge of Juventus (1-0 v Shakhtar Donetsk and 3-0 v Celtic).
➤ Spurs are the team who have scored the highest percentage of their goals in the UEFA Champions League this season from crosses (63% – 5/8), while Antonio Conte’s side are also the team who have scored the most total goals following crosses (5).
➤ Olivier Giroud has been directly involved in six goals for Milan in the UEFA Champions League (four goals and two assists) – the last player with more in a single campaign in the competition for the Rossoneri was Zlatan Ibrahimovic in 2011-12 (9 – five goals and four assists).
➤ Ivan Perisic has made three assists in five appearances for Spurs in the UEFA Champions League this season, already his joint-most for a club among the four teams he has played for in the competition: three in 10 apps for Bayern Munich, one in 20 apps for Internazionale and none in 11 apps for Borussia Dortmund.
➤ The three players who have recovered possession most often in the middle third of the pitch in the UEFA Champions League this season all play for either AC Milan or Spurs: Rodrigo Bentancur (34), Ismaël Bennacer (32) and Pierre-Emile Højbjerg (31). All three will miss the game.
