AC Milan vs Liverpool LIVE: Champions League result and reaction as Arne Slot’s men complete comeback win
AC Milan 1-3 Liverpool: Goals from Konate, Van Dijk and Szobozslai secured a comeback win for the Reds
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Arne Slot celebrated a first European victory as Liverpool head coach as his team defeated AC Milan 3-1 at the San Siro to kick off their Champions League campaign with a win.
Things started horribly for the Reds though as Kostas Tsimikas was caught out of position allowing Christian Pulisic to nip into the vacant space and slot home a superb finish with barely two minutes on the clock.
Liverpool responded brilliantly though. They controlled play and dictated the tempo against a deep defensive block. Mo Salah, who twice hit the crossbar, and Cody Gakpo looked hungry to score but the equaliser came courtesy of a defender.
Trent Alexander-Arnold flicked in a free kick and found Ibrahima Konate who nodded past an injured Mike Maignan to pull Liverpool level. A second set piece, this one a corner, put the visitors ahead with Virgil van Dijk heading home.
Late in the second half, Dominik Szobozslai volleyed home a cross from Cody Gakpo to secure the points and send the Reds marching on.
Relive the action with our live blog below:
What is the new Champions League format?
Instead of 32 competing sides being divided into eight groups of four, all 36 teams in this year’s Champions League will form a single league. Each entrant will play four games at home and four games away for a total of eight fixtures, two more than under the previous format. These eight encounters will be with eight different opponents.
The top eight sides in the league after the competition’s first phase will progress directly to the last-16. Teams placed ninth to 24th will have to negotiate a play-off round, while teams that finish 25th or lower will be eliminated from all European competition.
The 36 clubs will be seeded into four different pots based on their individual club coefficient at the start of the season. Each team will face two sides from each pot, one at home and one away. Pot 1 will include defending champions Real Madrid and the other strongest club sides by Uefa coefficient.
Liverpool aren’t scared of AC Milan says Slot
The Liverpool manager Arne Slot says there is no fear in his team over tonight’s trip to the San Siro. Speaking in his pre-match press conference he said: “I don’t think any manager is scared to play the other team, but we have a lot of respect for AC Milan.
“They have quality; we’re not scared but we respect all their players. They have shown they are in good form with a very good 4-0 win [against Venezia]. Scared is not the word we would use. We respect a lot.”
Slot also addressed the new Champions League format and picked out a couple of positives saying: “As someone who loves football, every night there is a nice fixture. For example, tomorrow everyone who loves football is looking forward to our game. It is positive for the person at home, [and] for the players.”
The fixture which shows football’s changing face - and how AC Milan got left behind
It used to be that Milan-Liverpool matches would crown Champions League seasons rather than kick them off, and it’s not the only thing about Tuesday’s meeting that has been upended. The two clubs have consistently been the names directly underneath Real Madrid in the competition’s list of honours since 1990, at which point the Spanish club had six European Cups, with Milan and Liverpool four apiece.
It’s now 15, seven, six. Despite that almost perpetual status as the next greatest clubs on the continent, AC Milan and Liverpool actually only met four times before Tuesday’s fixture at the San Siro. More fittingly, two of those have been Champions League finals, and it was after the last of those that the late Silvio Berlusconi triumphantly came out with the following:
The fixture which shows football’s changing face - and how Milan got left behind
The Rossoneri and Liverpool met in the finals of 2005 and 2007; in 2024 they meet in the opening fixture of a brand new Champions League format
Where to watch every Champions League fixture on TV this week
Thursday 19 September
17:45 Feyenoord v Bayer 04 Leverkusen - TNT Sports 2
17:45 FK Crvena Zvezda v SL Benfica - TNT Sports 4
20:00 Atalanta BC v Arsenal FC - TNT Sports 1
20:00 AS Monaco v FC Barcelona - TNT Sports 2
20:00 Atlético de Madrid v RB Leipzig - TNT Sports 4
20:00 Stade Brestois 29 v SK Sturm Graz - TNT Sports 5
Where to watch every Champions League fixture on TV this week
Wednesday 18 September
17:45 AC Sparta Praha v FC Salzburg - TNT Sports 6
17:45 Bologna FC 1909 v FC Shakhtar Donetsk - TNT Sports 4
20:00 Celtic FC v ŠK Slovan Bratislava - TNT Sports 2
20:00 Club Brugge KV v Borussia Dortmund - TNT Sports 5
20:00 Manchester City v FC Internazionale Milano - TNT Sports 1
20:00 Paris Saint-Germain v Girona FC - TNT Sports 4
Where to watch every Champions League fixture on TV this week
All times UK (BST)
Tuesday 17 September
17:45 BSC Young Boys v Aston Villa FC - TNT Sports 1
17:45 Juventus v PSV Eindhoven - TNT Sports 2
20:00 AC Milan v Liverpool FC - Amazon Prime Video
20:00 FC Bayern München v GNK Dinamo - TNT Sports 2
20:00 Real Madrid C.F. v VfB Stuttgart - TNT Sports 1
20:00 Sporting Clube de Portugal v LOSC Lille - TNT Sports 4
Real Madrid target Trent Alexander-Arnold
Real Madrid are already planning their next European era, as they are aiming to sign Rodri, Trent Alexander-Arnold and either William Saliba or Cristian Romero.
The ambitious scale comes after a half-decade of financial realignment, where the Spanish champions targeted younger players in order to build a squad for the future.
The strategy was partly influenced by the feeling it was getting increasingly difficult to economically compete with the Premier League and state-owned clubs.
Real Madrid target Trent Alexander-Arnold as part of ambitious new transfer era
The European champions are preparing to go big next summer after half a decade of financial realignment
Slot ‘looking forward’ to first Champions League game
Liverpool are playing their first Champions League match after missing out and competing in the Europa League last season. Tonight’s match also marks Arne Slot’s first European game in charge of the Reds.
“It’s a big game, also for me, but a big game for us,” said Slot, “Because of the history these two teams have, the venue it is played in, it is one to look forward to.”
AC Milan vs Liverpool predicted line-ups
Here’s how we see both teams taking to the pitch at the San Siro tonight:
AC Milan XI: Maignan; Emerson, Thiaw, Pavlovic, Hernandez; Reijnders, Fofana, Loftus-Cheek; Pulisic, Morata, Leao
Liverpool XI: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Mac Allister, Gravenberch, Jones; Salah, Gakpo, Diaz
What is the AC Milan team news?
For Milan, Tammy Abraham scored in the 4-0 win over Venezia at the weekend and could keep his place ahead of Alvaro Morata.
Christian Pulisic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Fikayo Tomori are the other former Chelsea men who could feature against the Reds.
Captain Davide Calabria and centre-back Malick Thiaw are both doubts, while Alessandro Florenzi is out, meaning that Emerson Royal continues at full-back,
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