AC Milan face off against Red Bull Salzburg tonight knowing a draw or win will see them in the Champions League knockout stages, but it is easier said than done.
Milan’s official website have picked out some key pointers on how Matthias Jaissle’s play, with their style heavily reliant on ‘speed and intensity to win the ball back high up in the opposition’s half’ to then launch dangerous counter-attacks.
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The Austrian side – along with Chelsea – are the team that has the most ball recoveries (351) in the Champions League and are third behind Manchester City (59) and Barcelona (66) in winning possession back in the attacking third (57).
However, the report also highlights that Jaissle’s side can sometimes be wasteful on the ball, given that in the 2-1 defeat to Chelsea they registered only a 50% pass completion rate (115/230). Since the 2003-04 season, there has only been one worse statistic when Cluj (vs. Galatasaray) in October 2012 had only a 30.1% passing accuracy.
In terms of dangerous players to look out for, 22-year-old forward Noah Okafor has scored three out of the five goals netted by Salzburg in the Champions League. The young Swiss striker – who came through the ranks at FC Basel – has already got six goals in twelve appearances in the Austrian Bundesliga.
Junior Adamu is expected to partner him up front and he was the scorer of their only goal in the 2-1 loss to Chelsea last week. He is the second youngest player in the Austrian side with at least two goals in the current edition of the Champions League, after Karim Adeyemi (now at Dortmund).
