AC Milan found out their eight opponents for the first phase of the 2024-25 Champions League in during Thursday’s draw, and they will face two European powerhouses.
Milan have not been handed the easiest opponents from Pot 1 with reigning champions Real Madrid hosting the Rossoneri, whilst Liverpool will return to San Siro after visiting during the 2021-22 season.
Paulo Fonseca’s side must travel to face Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen which will not be easy, while there are also some intriguing fixtures against Slovan Bratislava, Dinamo Zagreb, Girona and Red Star Belgrade being drawn.
What should Milan expect from their eight opponents? We have provided a guide on each.
Liverpool
How did last season go? Finished third in the Premier League, reached the FA Cup quarter-finals, won the EFL Cup and reached the quarter-finals of the Europa League. The top scorer across all competitions was Mo Salah with 25 goals.
What has changed over the summer? Iconic manager Jurgen Klopp departed, replaced by Feyenoord head coach Arne Slot. Signings include Giorgi Mamardashvili (from Valencia) and Federico Chiesa (from Juventus). Exits include Thiago, Joel Matip and Fabio Carvalho.
Most recent starting XI: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Konate, van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Szoboszlai; Salah, Jota, Diaz.
Real Madrid
How did last season go? Won LaLiga, reached the Round of 16 in the Copa del Rey, won the Supercopa de Espana and won the Champions League. Top scorer was Vinicius Junior, with 24 goals across all competitions.
What has changed over the summer? Carlo Ancelotti remains in charge, with the big signing of the summer being Kylian Mbappe on a free transfer from PSG. Endrick has also arrived. Exits include Nacho, Toni Kroos and Joselu.
Most recent starting XI: Courtois; Vasquez, Militao, Rudiger, F. Mendy; Valverde, Tchouameni, Brahim, Modric; Vini Jr., Mbappe.
Club Brugge
How did last season go? Finished fourth in the regular season in the league and won the Champions’ play-offs. Reached the semi-finals of the Belgian Cup and the UEFA Conference League. Top scorer was Igor Thiago (29 goals all competitions).
What has changed over the summer? Nicky Heyan is still the head coach after coming in in March. New signings include Ardon Jashari from FC Luzern, Zaid Romero from Estudiantes, Christos Tzolis from Fortuna Dusseldorf, Gustaf Nilsson from USG and Hugo Siquet from SC Freiburg. Big sale was Igor Thiago to Brentford for around €35m.
Most recent starting XI: Mignolet; De Cuyper, Mechele, Ordoñez, Seys; Onyedika, Vetlesen, Vanaken; Tzolis, Skov Olsen, Nilsson.
Bayer Leverkusen
How did last season go? A quite incredible campaign saw them win the Bundesliga, win the DFB-Pokal and reach the Europa League final where they lost to Atalanta. The top scorer across all competitions was Victor Boniface, who scored 21 times.
What has changed over the summer? Xabi Alonso was expected to leave but eventually decided to remain as head coach. Jeaniel Belocian (from Rennes), Aleix Garcia (from Girona), Martin Terrier (from Rennes) and Nordi Mukiele (from PSG) are the main signings. The big sales have been Sardar Azmoun, Adam Hlozek and Patrick Pentz.
Most recent starting XI: Kovář; Tapsoba, Tah, Belocian; Arthur, Andrich, Aleix García, Tella; Hofmann, Adli; Schick.
Crvena Zvezda
How did last season go? Won the Serbian SuperLiga and the Serbian Cup, but exited in the group stage of the Champions League. Changed head coach in December from Barak Bakhar to Vladan Milojevic. Cherif Ndiaye scored the most goals in total with 15.
What has changed over the summer? Signed Felicio Milson, Nasser Dyiga, Bruno Duarte, Jose Luis Rodriguez, Timi Max Elsnik and Young-woo Sell all for seven-figure fees (€1m+). Sold Osman Bukari, Marko Stamenic, Jean-Philippe Krasso and Srdjan Mijailovic for seven-figure fees too.
Most recent starting XI: Ilic; Mimovic, Djiga, Spajic, Seol; Hwang, Elsnik; Olayinka, Ivans, Milson; Duarte.
❗ OFFICIAL: #ACMilan's 2024-25 #UCL opponents:
🏴 Liverpool (H)
🇪🇸 Real Madrid (A)
🇧🇪 Club Brugge (A)
🇩🇪 Bayer Leverkusen (A)
🇷🇸 Crvena Zvezda (H)
🇭🇷 Dinamo Zagreb (A)
🇪🇸 Girona (H)
🇸🇰 Slovan Bratislava (A)🤔 Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/T1v73FcqYj
— SempreMilan (@SempreMilanCom) August 29, 2024
Dinamo Zagreb
How did last season go? Won the domestic treble: the HNL (league), the Croatian Cup and the Croatian Super Cup. Went out in the third round of Champions League qualifiers, reached the play-off round in the Europa League and the last 16 in the Europa League. Top scorer was Bruno Petkovic with 18 goals (all comps).
What has changed over the summer? Sergej Jakirovic remains head coach after taking over last August. Summer signings for a fee include Juan Cordoba (from Deportivo Cali), Marko Pjaca (from Rijeka), Lukas Kacavenda and Nikola Cavlina (both from Lokomotiva).
Most recent starting XI: Nevistic; Pierre-Gabriel, Theophile-Catherine, Mmbaee, Ogiwara; Misic; Pjaca, Suçiç, Baturina; Petkovic, Kulenovic.
Girona
How did last season go? Had a fairytale season under Michel, finishing third in LaLiga after looking like mounting a serious title push. Got to the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey. Top scorer: Artem Dovbyk (24 goals), now of Roma.
What has changed over the summer? Girona kept Michel as head coach and added Yasper Asprilla from Watford for €18m and Ladislav Krejci from Sparta Prague for €12m. Abel Ruiz, Bojan Miovski and Alejandro Frances also arrived for substantial fees. Aleix Garcia and Artem Dovbyk left for a combined €48.5m.
Most recent starting XI: Gazzaniga; Frances, Lopez, Blind, Gutierrez; Tsygankov, Herrera, Martin, Gil; Ruiz, Miovski.
Slovan Bratislava
How did last season go? Coached by Vladimir Weiss (no, not the former Manchester City winger, but he plays for them), Slovan won the league and reached the quarter-finals of the Slovak Cup. They got to the third qualifying round of the Champions League, the play-off round of the Europa League and the knockout round play-offs in the Conference League. Top scorer honours were shared between David Strelec and Aleksandar Caprice (14 goals each).
What has changed over the summer? The only signings have been frees with Kyriakos Savvidis, Kevin Winner and Cesar Blackman joining. Exits include David Hrncar, Zan Medved and Jurij Medvedev have all left.
Most recent starting XI: Takac; Blackman, Kashia, Bajric, Winner; Szoke, Kucka; Barseghyan, Polic, Weiss; Strelec.
And FONSECA’S MILAN 🔥🔥🔥
Can someone please explain to me how this latest UCL works!
There are 4pots in the draw 2teams from each pot are the opponents.
After group stage, Top 8teams goes to round 16. Last 8(25-32 placed teams) will be eliminated from the champions league. 16 teams placed 9 to 24 will play home nd away matches like eliminater, winning 8teams will compete in round 16 with top 8.
Round 16–> quarters – – >semifinal – – >final
This was the format
That’s a very good and concise explanation buddy 👍🏻
its 36 teams in total (not 32). the rest is correct
Errrrrrr no 😂😂
It’s easy. To give Milan a chance, they leave out Parma.
So it seems that Chiesa in fact went to Liverpool. According to some omniscient and wholly clairvoyant fans here, he’s a piece of garbage, a lousy player that in any circumstances deserves to wear our colors, isn’t it? But it seems that folks at Liverpool, which is not exactly a football minion, strongly disagree about it.
Oh boy…
Exactly my point. People are talking about “we don’t need an injury prone player” yet we’re going for Tammy ACL Abraham
And “we don’t need another winger” then sell one of the worse ones for 12mn and buy chiesa. Would have ticked some of the UEFA quota for league trained players and bought a potential massive upgrade for our attack. I thought all this fiscal prudence was so we could grasp “opportunities” if they presented themselves…. a fired up Chiesa for €12mn was definitely an opportunity!
Like you said Liverpool are no mugs. Chiesa might end up the long term successor to Salah
What does ‘mn’ even mean? I never heard anyone use that for million.
Chiesa will flop in epl like most Italians. Just watch and see. L’pool got a squad player for a 6M salary (net(. Good for them, they can afford it. Can Milan? Clubs cheap af, so I’d say no
I will never understand why we let him go to Liverpool without a fight.
A top Italian international for peanuts who moves straight into a 433. Imagine the delight if he came and found form?
I guess he didn’t fit into our very well constructed and not at all hap-hazard transfer strategy
Juventus didn’t want to sell to us, a direct Rival.
Or Chiesa didn’t want to come to Milan.
It’s simple as that.
That is completely made up haha nice try man
Ok Romano
I wasn’t aware of the Mamardashvili deal so looked it up but he has been loaned back to Valencia for this season.
Good long term planning from Liverpool, clearly in 1-2 seasons they expect Alisson to take that life-changing paycheck from ReAl-Hilal or similar.
He has dropped some in form the last year or so from what I’ve been able to judge from the matches I’ve seen compared to a few years back so it does make sense get him and i quite like the georgian goalkeeper. Maybe Allison will end up there at some point who knows.
Liverpool are the team to fear. Every-time I watch the clown show in white I’m not that impressed, of course they’ll probably do what they did in the CL last year against City, Bayern and to a point dortmund and get their asses handed to them and still win, like they did in the CL final in 2019 oh wait, I meant 2022, 2019 was when they indiscriminately took Salah out of the match by dirty Ramos, or perhaps Franco will return from the dead to make sure they win everything, or even re-sell the training ground for whatever they want to but whomever they want and get it back for free…
Still…Liverpool do look good under Slot, they attack so quickly and efficiently
Real home fixtures Dortmund and us. Well surprise surprise.
So Romano saying that it’s a straight swap for Abraham and saelemaekers ON LOAN. I feel like that’s the best scenario or the time we have left.
Am I the only one having their comments moderated???
Ok moderation is off….
Right, what is going on with the, erm, ‘Champions’ League this season?
How many games are teams playing?
Has anyone in football ever heard of such a thing as saturation?
The UCL is simply a Super League now.
Of course. Two leagues. That’s a thing…..
Bayer is a cheap brand of over-the-counter aspirin in the US. That company seemingly has its fingers in a lot of different pies.
What concerns me is that players like R.leao n Theo won’t take this moment in the champions league to shine and compete with the best of the game. They will most likely not take it seriously.