AC Milan will welcome Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb to San Siro tonight in the second game of the Champions League group stages.
The Rossoneri come into the game off the back of a 1-1 draw away against Red Bull Salzburg last week to open their European campaign in 2022-23, while Dinamo sprang arguably the surprise of the round beating Chelsea 1-0 in Croatia to get Thomas Tuchel the sack.
You can read our match preview here, while below are the best pre-match stats…
➤ Milan and Dinamo Zagreb will meet for the fifth time in European competition, with the Italian side coming into this game with a 100% record across the previous fixtures (4/4).
➤ This will be the first meeting between the sides since the 2000-01 season, however, when Milan won both games during a UEFA Champions League qualifying tie (3-1 H, 3-0 A).
➤ This is the third time Dinamo Zagreb have been drawn in a UEFA Champions League group stage with an Italian side, having previously lost both games against Juventus in 2016-17 (0-4 H, 0-2 A) and winning one and losing one against Atalanta in 2019-20 (4-0 H, 0-2 A).
➤ After winning their first five games against Croatian sides in European competition, AC Milan were beaten in the most recent fixture — 0-2 v HNK Rijeka in the UEFA Europa League in December 2017. That defeat did come away from home, however, with the Italian side winning all three matches against Croatian opposition on home soil.
➤ Milan haven’t won any of their last six home games in the UEFA Champions League (D3 L3), their longest ever run without a home victory in the competition. Their last victory at the Giuseppe Meazza in the UEFA Champions League was against Celtic back in September 2013 (2-0).
➤ Having beaten Chelsea 1-0 on MD1, Dinamo Zagreb are looking for consecutive UEFA Champions League wins for only the second time, beating FC Porto (3-1 H) and Ajax (1-0 A) in November 1998 under Zlatko Kranjcar.
➤ Under the current group stage format (since 2003-04), the only previous season in which AC Milan failed to win either of their opening two games in a UEFA Champions League campaign was last season, under current manager Stefano Pioli (L2).
➤ Dinamo Zagreb had just 31.8% possession against Chelsea on MD1; the third-lowest of any team on MD1, and the lowest of any team who managed to avoid defeat. Indeed, only Shakhtar Donetsk (5 v RB Leipzig) had fewer shots than Dinamo Zagreb (6 v Chelsea) among teams who won their opening game in this season’s UEFA Champions League.
➤ Along with scoring Milan’s equaliser on MD1, Alexis Saelemaekers made five successful take-ons against RB Salzburg — only Vinicius Junior (6 v Celtic) and Ousmane Dembele (6 v Viktoria Plzen) made more than the Belgian across the first matchday in this season’s UEFA Champions League.
➤ Mislav Orsic scored Dinamo Zagreb’s winning goal in their 1-0 win over Chelsea on MD1, with Orsic netting five goals in seven UEFA Champions League appearances. He is Zagreb’s leading scorer in major European competition, scoring 18 goals in 37 appearances (in UCL and UEL).
➤ Since scoring four goals from five shots against Sevilla in December 2020 with Chelsea, Olivier Giroud has only managed one goal in 11 UEFA Champions League appearances. The Milan forward has only had eight shots and five on target across those 11 games, including six efforts in six games for his current side.
