‘That night in Istanbul 2005’. ‘Revenge in Athens 2007′. Sounds like first two movies of a trilogy. Well – it is not the final of the Champions League tonight but it is the third time the two giants of European football meet.The English team lifted the competition trophy in the 2018/19 season while it will be a happy happy night for the Rossoneri who are back in the tournament for the first time after seven years.Denmark and Milan defender Simon Kjaer states that the Italian team is not just visitors in the competition but nevertheless Liverpool are considered favourites.’Liverpool are very strong, but in my opinion we have grown both physically and mentally compared to the last game in Europe,’ Kjaer said.’It will be difficult, but I know the coach and he wants us to go there and play for Milan. We are there to prove that we are not on holiday.’The last time Liverpool and AC Milan met in the Champions League #uefachampionsleague 🔴⚫️ pic.twitter.com/J69hXnhFbo— Martino (@MartinoPuccio) September 8, 2021 ‘We have prepared well,’ he added. ‘We are at a good point in our path, we have grown a lot and now we must demonstrate.’Matches like this are the ones we play football for. Not many believe that we can go there and play for it, but that’s our mentality.’Both team will be without their ‘number nines’ – Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Roberto Firmino will be on the sidelines for the first official match up of the two teams since the 2006/07 Champions League season. The only two previous occasions these two met in European competition, happened in the final of the UEFA Champions League. The Reds won 3-2 on penalties in 2005, before losing 1-2 in normal time in 2007.Liverpool are on sort of a dry spell with Italian teams lately – after winning six of their first seven home games against Italian sides in European competition, Liverpool have gone winless in the most recent two – drawing 1-1 with Napoli in 2019-20 and losing 0-2 to Atalanta in 2020-21, during the last two campaigns.Salah scores his 100th Premier League goal in Liverpool win over LeedsMilan have little to brag about against English teams – they have only won one of their last 13 games against English opponents in European competition, with that lone victory coming against Arsenal in this competition in February 2012.AC Milan’s superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who turns 40 next month, is being rested as a precaution after feeling pain in his Achilles tendon during training on Tuesday morning and it will surely take a lot from the tonight’s show.’We need to be intelligent on the pitch and understand where the space is. Liverpool want to push and won’t want to sit back and wait.’, said Stefano Pioli, manager of the Italian Red Devils.📋 The squad for our @ChampionsLeague debut 📋 I convocati per #LiverpoolMilan#SempreMilan #UCL #SempreMilan pic.twitter.com/3y6UDC4pbD— AC Milan (@acmilan) September 14, 2021 Both team have opened their respective domestic campaigns in a satisfying manner – Liverpool sit 3rd only on goal difference behind Man United and Chelsea while Milan are second in Serie A also due to less goals scored than Roma.Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp is aware Milan had a more than respective last season and states that his team needs to be at the top of their game for the tonight’s match-up.’They played a brilliant last season, ended up second [in Serie A] and started this season really good as well. It will be for sure a very tough game for both sides.’, said the German expert.There should be at least five African players on the pitch from the start – Milan will have their midfield organised by Ivorian Kessie and Algerian Bennacer while Liverpool will most probably have their opening line-up with Salah, Mane and Matip.Atletico Madrid and Porto sum up group B, surely one of the most interesting clusters in this year’s tournament. A tricky bunch, of which all of them have more than a fair chance to qualify for the knock-out stages.CHAMPIONS LEAGUE – GROUP STAGE – ROUND 1Young Boys – Man.Utd. 2-1 (0-1)/Ngamaleu 66, Siebatcheu 90+5 – Ronaldo 13/Sevilla – Salzburg 1-1 (1-1)/Rakitic (p) 42 – Susic 21/Barcelona – Bayern 0-3 (0-1)/Muller 34, Lewandowski 56,85/Dynamo Kyiv – Benfica 0-0 (0-0)Villareal – Atalanta 2-2 (1-1)/Trigueros 39, Danjuma 73 – Freuler 6, Gosens 83/Lille – Wolfsburg 0-0Chelsea – Zenit 1-0 (0-0)/Lukaku 69/Malmo – Juventus 0-3 (0-1)/Sandro 23, Dybala 45, Morata 45+1/WEDNESDAY:Wed 19.45: (5.40) Besiktas (4.00) Dortmund (1.62)Wed 19.45: (4.30) Sheriff Tiraspol (3.50) Shakhtar (1.88)Wed 22.00: (13.0) Club Brugge (6.50) PSG (1.22)Wed 22.00: (1.35) Man.City (5.30) RB Leipzig (8.00)Wed 22.00: (1.65) Atl.Madrid (3.60) Porto (6.00)Wed 22.00: (1.60) Liverpool (4.00) Milan (5.70)Wed 22.00: (2.85) Sporting (3.30) Ajax (2.50)Wed 22.00: (2.55) Inter (3.30) Real Madrid (2.75)
