Former AC Milan defender Alessandro Costacurta has suggested that the Rossoneri will do well in the Champions League this season.
Speaking on Sky Sport Italia (via Milan News), Costacurta reacted to the Champions League draw which saw the Rossoneri have matches against Real Madrid and Liverpool confirmed.
This is the first Champions League campaign since the group stage was revamped entirely, so Milan face eight different teams and are placed into a 36-team league table rather than a group of four.
Milan were in Pot 2 and they got two very tough Pot 1 teams in Real Madrid and Liverpool, whilst Bayer Leverkusen from Pot 2 will be a very tough match. Beyond that, many fans will be very happy with the calibre of opponents that Milan have been drawn against.
As far as Costacurta is concerned, Milan’s history in the Champions League counts for nothing in the common day but he thinks the team could focus more on this tournament than the league this season given the draw.
“I think that Milan are more European than Italian, there is too much talk about the history of Milan, they have nothing to do with it. But I believe that in a way they can be more concentrated on Europe than Italy. They will have a good journey in Europe,” he said.
Who will AC Milan face in the Champions League?
- Real Madrid (A)
- Liverpool (H)
- Club Brugge (H)
- Bayer Leverkusen (A)
- Red Star Belgrade (H)
- Dinamo Zagreb (A)
- Girona (H)
- Slovan Bratislava (A)
15 point to qualify I’m not sure if we can get those but maybe make it to the playoff round.
How did you come up with that number? Its to early to focus on how many points we need to qualify. Let the Chl start first, there is a long way to go.
Of course its too early to say but 1 big league of 36 teams where the first 8 qualify directly and then 9th to 24rth will have to battle it out in between them in a two legged fixtures. Direct qualification probably will need very close to at least 15 points, the rest will have to play 2 more games minus the remainder going beyond the 24th best team.
Seems like a fair prediction by Grande for direct qualification but 11-13 points might get you to the double fixture qualification as well.
i don’t know about good journey because that performance against parma still haunted me. so ngl, maybe they would enjoy the traveling part as good journey. but performance wise, i need to be cautious about what to expect…
ContacurtA is joking
Are we confident that we will be able to win against anyone other than Bratislava, and perhaps Red Star?
Time will tell.