[han2503]

Milan - AEK Athens

Group stage - Matchday 1 - 2006/2007

Wednesday 13th September 2006

Time: 20:45 (Italian time), 19:45 (UK time)

Let's try to get off to a winning start, I predict a 2-0

This post has been edited by han2503: Sep 6 2006, 02:56 PM

[han2503]

Milan keen to get back to business


There have been few more difficult summers in the history of AC Milan than the one just past but the UEFA Champions League traditionally brings out the best in the Italian giants, and they will be looking to get off to a good start when they take on AEK Athens FC at the San Siro on Matchday 1.

• Finishing runners-up in Serie A would normally guarantee an automatic ticket to the UEFA Champions League group stage but a 30-point reduction for Milan's part in a sports tribunal case saw them relegated to third position. That put Carlo Ancelotti's men in the third qualifying round for Europe's premier club competition where they edged past FK Crvena Zvezda 3-1 on aggregate, with Filippo Inzaghi on target in each game.

Home comforts
• Six-time winners of the European Champion Clubs' Cup, Milan will be hoping to recapture their impressive home form in the competition. Ludovic Giuly's smart finish for FC Barcelona in last season's semi-final first leg, the only goal of the tie, spoiled a run of 12 wins in 13 home games.

• They have also been robust starters in each of the last four UEFA Champions League seasons - winning their opening fixture in each case and going on to top the group.

Past meetings• Milan faced AEK in the group stage of the 1994/95 UEFA Champions League - the teams have not met in the intervening 12 years and neither have Milan faced any opposition from Greece in that time - when they followed a 0-0 away draw with a 2-1 win in a game that took place in Trieste.

• It continued Milan's sequence of never having lost to Greek sides in UEFA competition. In the each of their previous three ties with Greek opposition to date, over the two games the Rossoneri have won at home and drawn away.

AEK task
• This is AEK's third UEFA Champions League campaign in five seasons and Lorenzo Serra Ferrer's team will be hoping to record their first ever victory in the competition in Milan. In a total of 18 games so far their record reads ten draws and eight defeats.

• On their last visit to Italy the Greek league runners-up managed to hold AS Roma to a 1-1 draw in the 2002/03 UEFA Champions League – the only time they have ever come away from the country with a result after six previous defeats.

UEFA.com