AC Milan vs Slavia Prague

Stadio San Siro plays host to an exciting first-leg clash between AC Milan and Slavia Prague as their Europa League last-16 tie commences this midweek.

Milan kept their pursuit of their first-ever Europa League title alive with a 5-3 aggregate win against Rennes in the knockout playoff round, courtesy of a 3-0 first-leg triumph at home. Another scintillating home performance will be required to increase their hopes of reaching the quarter-finals as ‘I Rossoneri’ are winless in away legs of a post-group stage UEFA tie since 2017/18. Beating 8-man Lazio 1-0 at the weekend solidified Milan’s position in a keenly-contested top-four race in Serie A and served to end their three-game winless run ahead of this encounter (D1, L2). While they’ve never played Slavia before, the Italians can draw confidence from their unbeaten record against their arch-rivals Sparta Prague (W4, D2), which forms part of their decent-looking all-time balance against Czech sides (W9, D3, L2).

Slavia Prague’s hopes of inflicting damage on Milan’s eye-catching home record since crashing out of the Champions League group phase (W7, D2, L1) are in tatters after back-to-back winless encounters against Sparta (D1, L1). However, the Red and Whites went from strength to strength in the Europa League group stages, finishing atop Group G ahead of Roma with a near-flawless record (W5, L1). But the only blemish on their outstanding group-phase run was a 2-0 defeat at the Stadio Olimpico, which forms part of a larger, more sinister pattern. They’ve lost seven of their eight previous visits to Italian soil, barring a 1-1 draw against Milan’s city rivals Inter in the 2019/20 Champions League group stage. But considering they’ve gone unbeaten on all nine travels since that loss in Rome (W5, D4), they’ll have no shortage of confidence here.