Football Italia
·17 settembre 2024
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·17 settembre 2024
Milan bring Alvaro Morata back with Rafael Leao and Christian Pulisic for their massive Champions League opener against Mohamed Salah’s Liverpool.
It kicks off at San Siro at 20.00 UK time (19.00 GMT).
You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens from this game and Juventus-PSV Eindhoven on the LIVEBLOG.
This is Matchday 1 of the new and expanded tournament, where all 36 teams go into a single table and face eight different opponents.
The Rossoneri were already feeling the pressure after two points from the opening three Serie A rounds, but then flattened Venezia 4-0 on Saturday with all the goals in the opening half-hour.
Morata was rested for that game and returns here along with Davide Calabria and Fikayo Tomori.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Tijjani Reijnders swapped places between the midfield and trequartista roles, so could try to make that an unpredictable element for Milan as they fan out behind the EURO 2024 winner.
Malick Thiaw, Ismael Bennacer, Alessandro Florenzi and Marco Sportiello are out of action.
Liverpool had the perfect start under Arne Slot, winning all three opening games with a clean sheet, until Saturday’s surprise 1-0 home defeat to Premier League minnows Nottingham Forest.
The only absentee is Harvey Elliott, so ex-Roma star Salah joins Cody Gakpo, Dominik Szoboszlai and Diogo Jota.
Of the seven goals scored so far this season, six were evenly split between Salah and Luis Diaz.
Italy international Federico Chiesa is on the bench and waiting for his Liverpool debut.
This is a rivalry that lit up the Champions League Final in 2005 and 2007, winning one apiece.
Since then, there were two group games both won by the Reds in 2021.
Milan: Maignan; Calabria, Tomori, Pavlovic, Theo Hernandez; Fofana, Reijnders; Pulisic, Loftus-Cheek, Leao; Morata
Liverpool: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Konaté, van Dijk, Tsimikas; Mac Allister, Gravenberch; Salah, Szoboszlai, Gakpo; Diogo Jota
Ref: Eskas (NOR)