AC Milan will put their recent upturn in form to the test tonight when they take on the German champions Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League.
Milan will face Die Werkself for the first time in their history and after what is undoubtedly the best campaign in their history, given they won the league unbeaten, the German Cup and scored 144 goals across all competitions.
Our pre-match preview has all the latest team news and some more detailed insight on Leverkusen, while below are the best stats ahead of the game.
➤ Bayer Leverkusen and Milan have never previously met in European competition. In their previous 12 games against Italian sides in the UEFA Champions League, Leverkusen have only managed two victories (D4 L6), and lost each of the last three in a row.
➤ Milan have only lost one of their last eight games against German sides in the UEFA Champions League (W3 D4), although that one defeat did come in the most recent such game – 1-3 v last season’s finalists Borussia Dortmund in November 2023.
➤ Bayer Leverkusen are unbeaten in their last nine home games in major European competition (W6 D3), while they’ve never previously gone 10 in a row without defeat in such matches.
➤ Milan have only won their first away game in one of their previous seven UEFA Champions League campaigns (D5 L1), failing to do so in each of the last four (D1) since beating Zenit St Petersburg in 2012-13 (3-2).
➤ Following Bayer Leverkusen’s 4-0 victory over Feyenoord last time out, they could win their opening two games of a UEFA Champions League campaign for the first time since 2001-02; a season in which they would go on to reach the final (1-2 defeat to Real Madrid).
➤ This is Milan’s 21st season in the UEFA Champions League – only in 2021-22 have they ever lost both of their opening two games in a single campaign, with defeat on MD1 that year coming against Liverpool.
➤ Milan faced 11 shots on target in their 3-1 defeat to Liverpool on MD1, their joint-most on record (since 2003-04) in a single UEFA Champions League match. Indeed, only Dinamo Zagreb (6.3) and Slovan Bratislava (3.8) had a higher xG against than Milan (3.1) on MD1 of this season’s competition.
➤ Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen have kept a clean sheet in each of their last two UEFA Champions League games, while only once previously have they managed three successive shutouts in the competition (a run of three in October 2000-September 2001).
➤ Florian Wirtz has been directly involved in 24 goals in his last 26 starts for Bayer Leverkusen in European competition (12 goals, 12 assists), and became the first German player to score twice on his UEFA Champions League debut in his previous such game (two goals v Feyenoord on MD1).
➤ Christian Pulisic has netted in each of his last two UEFA Champions League appearances for Milan (two goals), while he could become the first player from the United States to score in three consecutive appearances in the competition.
