Key events
43 min Whatever the merits of Milan’s defending, there’s no doubt Liverpool deserve to be ahead. They woke up in around the 15th minute and since then it’s been extremely one-sided.
Tsimikas curled a good, inswinging corner into the six-yard box, where Van Dijk lost his marker and timed his jump perfectly to head past Maignan. That was a bit too easy for Liverpool, well taken though it was,.
GOAL! AC Milan 1-2 Liverpool (Van Dijk 41)
Liverpool have scored again from a set piece!
40 min Another good effort from Salah, this time after a fast Liverpool break. He cut inside Pavlovic on the edge of the area and reversed a low shot towards the near post. It probably would have hit the post but Maignan got down to push it behind for a corner.
40 min “I don’t know about Kári Tulinius’ “nerds-only” categorization,” protests Justin Kavanagh, “but I’ve been studying Liverpool’s freshly excavated, European adventures origin film for several hours minutes now and clearly there was a whiteout snowstorm at minute 1:06, and thereafter the camera crew felt no need to capture the Englishers doing goals action, merely being content to point their camera at the scoreboard occasionally. It’s great stuff. A Tardis for anoraks everywhere. This is the Zapruder film of Scouser football!”
39 min Gakpo gives Maignan an impromptu fitness test with a low shot from 25 yards. Maignan moves across his line to make a comfortable save.
38 min He’s okay to continue for now.
36 min The Milan keeper Maignan is down again so there’s another break in play.
35 min Tsimikas wins a corner for Liverpool, whose precision and speed is too much for Milan right now. Nothing comes of Alexander-Arnold’s corner.
32 min The resulting free-kick is at least 30 yards from goal. Prohibitive for most players but not when you strike the ball as well as Alexander-Arnold. He whistles a low drive that is kicked away near the penalty spot.
31 min Another thing Liverpoiol have done well up to now is keep Rafa Leao quiet. In fact most of Milan’s threat has been on the other side.
Fofana is booked for trying to pull backl Salah, who looks so sharp.
30 min: Salah hits the bar again! Gakpo’s dangerous cross-shot from the left side of the area is turned away by the diving Maignan. Salah retrieves the loose ball with dizzying speed and pokes an early shot that hits the underside of the bar before bouncing off Maignan to safety. That was a really good effort from Salah.
29 min Milan are slowing the game down when they get, a sensible short-term approach because they’re in danger of being overwhelmed by Liverpool.
27 min Salah shoots straight at Maignan from 12 yards after good play by Alexander-Arnold. There were two defenders nearby so it was nowhere near as good a cha nce as Jota’s.
26 min: Jota misses a great chance! Blimey, Diogo Jota rarely misses chances like that. Mac Allister ran at a backpedalling defence and timed a short pass perfectly to put Jota through on goal, 12 yards out. His left-foot shot beat Maignan but clipped the outside of the post.
25 min Calabria complained after the goal as well, arguing it wasn’t a foul on Gakpo. It looked a blatant foul from here. I’m fascinated by how many modern footballers scream injustice even when they are bang to rights.
The free-kick, just outside the area on the left, was flipped insouciantly into the six-yard box by Alexander-Arnold. Konate got above Tomori and the outrushing Maignan to head emphatically into the net. Lovely ball, good header. Next!
GOAL! Milan 1-1 Liverpool (Konate 23)
A double punishment for Davide Calabria!
23 min Calabria takes an old-fashioned shortcut through Gakpo, is rightly booked and looks thoroughly affronted.
22 min “That official AC Milan teamsheet post looks like a very nicely made tour poster for a band touring their third album,” says Jon Collin. “I can’t decide whether to see Starting XI in Calabria on the 2nd or Reijnders on the 14th. I hear Swiss Model are opening for them.”
I can’t believe they haven’t picked King Tut’s though./
20 min Gravenberch steals possession 25 yards from goal, only for Szoboszlai to give it back to Milan. It feels like Liverpool are starting to take control.
19 min “Let me be the first to say: Slot out,” says Niall Mullen.
Too late. The list of hashtags includes one particularly considered effort: #Slotout effing ess bald cee.
I wish I was making this up.
17 min: Salah hits the bar! Jota, on the half turn, plays a quick short pass into Salah on the edge of the area. He shifts the ball away from Pavlovic, onto his right foot, and batters a rising drive that beats Maignan and thumps off the underside of the bar. Fine effort.
16 min A mischipped cross from Gakpo almost sneaks in at the far post, with Maignan looking wide-eyed for a couple of seconds. Salah tried to keep it in play but couldn’t.
15 min Milan are cutting through Liverpool’s midfield with surprising ease, particularly in transition. Liverpool are dominating possession but Milan have been more incisive. Long way to go etc.
14 min “Dyche & Gabbana” is the promising subject of Peter Oh’s email. “Arne Slot may be in one of the fashion capitals of the world but his outfit looks influenced more by Sean Dyche than Dolce & Gabbana.”
At least he didn’t go for Sergio Georgini.
13 min Tsimikas makes an important last-ditch challenge on Morata, who might otherwise have been through on goal. He might also have been offside though.
10 min Milan look content to play on the break. Rafa Leao has the first chance to run at Konate, playing that hybrid centre-back/right-back role so that Alexander-Arnold can do his thing, but he overruns the ball and is dispossessed.
9 min “What a cracker of a game this promises to be,” writes Krishnamoorthy V. “Van Dijk was so looking forward to hearing the Big Cup anthem again that he forgot he is on the field as a defender probably. I predict a 1-2 final scoreline.”
Arf. We haven’t seen a replay so I’m not sure who, if anybody, was responsible for the goal. Konate was damned if he came across and damned if he didn’t, so I can understand him staying put. It was a cracking finish as well.
7 min Both players are okay to continue, and the match resumes just under four minutes after Pulisic’s goal.
6 min The match still hasn’t resumed because both Maignan and Theo Hernandez are receiving treatment.
Milan cut through Liverpool so easily in their own half, with Morata playing a return pass to release Pulisic. He was allowed to ran all the way from his own half into the Liverpool area; then, as Mac Allister finally got back to challenge, he drilled a low shot across Alisson and into the corner. That’s an excellent finish from a pretty tight angle.
I’m not sure what happened to Liverpool’s defence there but Tsimikas and Van Dijk were nowhere and Konate was reluctant to come across.
GOAL! AC Milan 1-0 Liverpool (Pulisic 3)
Christian Pulisic bangs AC Milan in front!
2 min Reijnders gets behind the Liverpool defence on the left, offside but not flagged. He slides the ball across the six-yard box, past Alisson, and Van Dijk does really well to put the ball behind rather than into his own net. And then the flag goes up.
1 min Peep peep! Liverpool get the game under way, kicking from left to right as we watch.
Istreh is a wheel
“Admittedly this is mostly of interest to nerds, but the National Film Archive of Iceland announced today that they’d found four minutes of previously unseen footage of Liverpool’s first ever European match, held in Reykjavík against local team KR,” writes Kári Tulinius. “You can see the clip, filmed by Vilhjálmur Knudsen, on the website of the Icelandic broadcasting service RÚV.”
Mostly of interest to nerds my foot: this is fantastic!
A reminder of the teams
AC Milan (4-1-2-3ish) Maignan; Calabria, Tomori, Pavlovic, Hernandez; Fofana; Reijnders, Loftus-Cheek; Pulisic, Morata, Rafael Leao.
Subs: Nava, Torriani, Okafor, Zeroli, Chukwueze, Emerson Royal, Bartesaghi, Terracciano, Gabbia, Abraham, Musah.
Liverpool (4-2-1-3ish) Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Konate, van Dijk, Tsimikas; Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Szoboszlai; Salah, Jota, Gakpo.
Subs: Jaros, Kelleher, Gomez, Endo, Diaz, Nunez, Chiesa, Jones, Robertson, Quansah, Morton, Bradley.
Referee Espen Eskas (Norway)
The two early games are done and dusted
That means, for the next two hours at least, ASTON VILLA ARE TOP OF THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE.
There’s a spectacular atmosphere in San Siro. It sounds like the build-up to a semi-final second leg, not the first European game of the season.
Amadou Onana has put Villa 3-0 up in Switzerland. All things being equal, they are going to be really good fun to watch in this competition.
Plenty of other big clubs are in action tonight, including Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Manchester United. You can follow their games, and more, with Taha Hashim.
“Traditional powerhouse AC Milan has exactly zero Italian attacking players in the starting XI?!” says Peter Oh. “What does that say about the state of Italian football?”
You’ve seen Liverpool’s front six, right? And England won Euro 2024!
The pre-match thoughts of Arne Slot
It’s a special occasion because Liverpool weren’t in the Champions League last season so we’re looking forward to being in it.
[On the changes] It is managing minutes, and we have more than 11 good playters. Today it’s Kostas and Cody. It’s all about them doing what they have to do for the team, and hopefully as a result of that we’ll get the best individual performance out of them as well.
Liverpool missed out on the Champions League last season, so this is their first game since a trip to Madrid in March 2023. Virgil van Dijk is glad to be back.
Alisson isn’t quite so full of the joys.
Half time: Young Boys 0-2 Aston Villa
Juventus v PSV is one of two games that have just reached half-time. Aston Villa, playing their first European Cup march since March 1983, are 2-0 up away to Young Boys thanks to Youri Tielemans and Jacob Ramsey. Ollie Watkins had a third goal VARed just before half-time.
You can follow that game with our resident MBM genius Scott Murray.
Team news: Tsimikas and Gakpo start
Arne Slot makes a couple of changes from Liverpool’s defeat to Forest. In: Kostas Tsimikas and Cody Gakpo. Out: Andy Robertson and Luis Diaz.
Milan make three changes, bringing in Davide Calabria, Fikayo Tomori and Alvaro Morata for Emerson Royal, Matteo Gabbia and Tammy Abraham. Despite his absence there are four ex-Chelsea players in the starting XI.
How the Swiss Model works
This is the short version.
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36 teams each play eight games between now and the end of January.
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The top eight go through to the last 16.
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The bottom 12 go home (not to the Europa League, not even with their bus fare).
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The teams that finish 9th to 24th play off for a place in the last 16.
Confused? Of course you are. Now all I need are the last three digits on the back of the card.
The answer to a popular quiz question of the future is Kenin Yildiz. He scored the opening goal of the Champions League’s Swiss Model era for Juventus against PSV Eindhoven. It was a fine goal, or, in the parlanace of our time, CAPITAL LETTERS GOOD. Weston McKennie has since made it 2-0.
Preamble
And now for $omething €ompl£t£ly diff£r£nt: the beginning of the Champions League’s Swiss Model era. Think of it as men’s football’s answer to Brat summer, only with less hedonism, loads more anxiety, billions of pounds being trousered by suits and a mysterious spate of soft-tissue injuries.
So far it’s going well, with one of the best players in the world marking the big day by confirming he and his peers have had their fill of games being added to the calendar.
Whatever you think of the new format – I can see both sides! – it will still end with Real Madrid one lucky team enjoying the greatest high in club football. The magic of becoming European champions will never fade. AC Milan and Liverpool, who meet tonight, have done so seven and six times respectively, with only Real Madrid winning the competition more often.
Both clubs are European Cup royalty. Alas, if we’re talking royalty, in recent times Milan have been more like [redacted]. They haven’t reached the final since beating Liverpool 2-1 in Athens in 2007. In fact they’ve only reached the semi-final once in the last 17 years, and even that memory must stay in a sealed box: after fighting their way past Spurs and Napoli in 2022-23, they were hammered by Internazionale in the last four.
Liverpool have reached the final in three of their last six Champions League campaigns and have begun the season well under Arne Slot, even if they ran head first into a tree against Nottingham Forest on Saturday. Milan are 10th in Serie A after a mixed start under Paulo Fonseca, but they are joint top-scorers and hammered Venezia 4-0 at the weekend.
I’d love to say this is a must-win game for both sides, but I don’t want to lie to you. Not yet. We may eventually reflect that the result of tonight’s game was decisive; right now it feels less about jeopardy and more about novelty.
Kick off 8pm.
