Considering Liverpool and AC Milan are two of the most successful clubs in European football history, it’s a little surprising that the Rossoneri had never visited Anfield before. Both teams have had many highs, but they rarely quite lined up to hit them at the same time. It took until 2005 for the clubs to meet and even then they have only faced each other on neutral ground in finals. It was the perfect match-up for the return of European football to a full Anfield.
Jürgen Klopp made four changes to the team that beat Leeds: captain Jordan Henderson, Joe Gomez, Naby Keïta and Divock Origi all came in, replacing the injured Harvey Elliott and rested Virgil van Dijk, Sadio Mané and Thiago Alcântara. They set up in their usual 4-3-3 formation.
Stefano Pioli made three changes to the side that beat Lazio, swapping out Alessio Romagnoli, Sandro Tonali and Alessandro Florenzi for Simon Kjaer, Ismaël Bennacer and Alexis Saelemaekers in their 4-2-3-1.
Liverpool simply blew Milan away in the opening stages. Using a man-orientated pressing system, Milan had Ante Rebic and Brahim Diaz push up to press the Liverpool centre-backs, while Rafael Leão and Saelemaekers would close down Liverpool’s full-backs when the ball went wide.
Liverpool never had any problem playing around this though. Fabinho was often left free in front of the defence, able to receive the ball with a simple bounce pass out to the full-backs, while Naby Keïta would regularly drop in next to him or to the left to help play out, enabling Liverpool to easily play around this first line of pressure. Franck Kessié and Bennacer would often track Henderson and Keïta closely, getting pulled forward or out to the flanks, but all this did was leave space in the centre for Diogo Jota to drop into and pick up the ball, playing straight through Milan.
Without doubt, it was the full-backs that were key to Liverpool’s early dominance though. With Jota tucking inside, Andy Robertson took advantage of the space on the overlap to bomb forward. Saelemaekers attempted to track the Scot, but Robertson simply outpaced him, catching out Milan’s backline.
It was the work of Trent Alexander-Arnold that actually led to the opening goal though. Playing a one-two with Mohamed Salah, he burst through the centre, away from Leão and into the box, where his cross was deflected into the net by Fikayo Tomori.
Much as they did against Chelsea, Liverpool also adapted their pressing scheme to Milan. Typically the Liverpool wingers will position themselves between the opposition full-backs and centre-backs, pressing the latter while curving their runs to block the pass into former. They would take up these same positions against Milan, however the wingers would rarely actually press the centre-backs. Instead it was left to Divock Origi to the press them, curving his run to block off the pass to the other centre-back. Henderson and Keïta would push up to get tight to Kessié and Bennacer and, with Salah and Jota close to the full-backs, Liverpool often resembled more of a 4-1-4-1 when pressing. The pressure of Origi would force the centre-backs into hurrying their passes, while all the simple short ones were cut off by the band of four supporting the press.
Liverpool’s dominance should have seen them add more to their scoreline, but Mike Maignan was having an excellent game in the Milan goal even if he was looking shaky with the ball at his feet, saving a penalty from Salah.
Instead Milan worked their way back into the match. Part of this was Liverpool’s intensity dropping after their quick start. That band of four worked well when they were hurrying Milan’s centre-backs, but once they gave them a bit of time on the ball, suddenly it looked less wise: Henderson and Keïta were pulled forward, leaving Fabinho alone in midfield.
Milan adapted too though. Diaz found that he could drag Fabinho forward, essentially leaving no Liverpool player to patrol the area in front of the defence, but even when he didn’t Milan were often able to exploit this space by having Saelemaekers tuck inside to outnumber the Brazilian. Liverpool went from forcing Milan into bad passes early on to giving them time to pick out good ones and space in attack to receive them.
Just before half-time Milan equalised. Simon Kjaer dinked a pass over the top into Diaz and the Spaniard had time on the ball in Liverpool’s half, easily finding a pass into Saelemaekers tucking in, with Fabinho failing to block the pass into his feet. Diaz having so much time on the ball forced Gomez into dropping off, wary of Rebic making a run in behind, giving time for Saelemaekers to turn and dribble forward. This forced Joël Matip out to deal with him, only for the Belgian to offload the ball to Leão, who spread it out to Rebic to finish – Alexander-Arnold’s failure to drop off with the rest of his backline leaving the Croatian in space.
A minute later, Milan took the lead. Liverpool were on the attack but Bennacer picked up a sloppy pass and shanked it out to the left flank towards Leão. Alexander-Arnold came across to meet him but so did Salah, aiming to double up on Leão rather than tracking the run of Theo Hernandez through the centre. Leão took the opportunity to squeeze it inside to his teammate then received it back again, easily playing around the now outnumbered Alexander-Arnold. Leão ran at Liverpool’s backline with Rebic and Hernandez in support, cutting inside before poking it through for Rebic to run onto. Matip appeared to have intercepted the pass only to get a poor connection with it, allowing it to bobble through to Rebic – Gomez was forced across to cover and Alisson Becker was forced out to close down the angle, meaning the Croatian could simply square it to Hernandez to finish. Robertson blocked Hernandez’s shot, but Diaz was the first man to the loose ball to squeeze it across the line.
Liverpool had gone from cruising to an easy victory to staring defeat in the face in the space of two minutes.
It didn’t last long though. Three minutes into the second half, Salah scored. Leão was pulled forward to deal with Henderson dropping off to the right, leaving Alexander-Arnold in space behind him for Matip to find with a pass into feet. Kessié came across to close down Alexander-Arnold, leaving Fabinho open for a simple pass inside and he moved it on to Salah. The Egyptian rolled it to Origi who took a touch and looped it over the heads of the Milan back four to Salah running in behind, finishing with the outside of his boot past Maignan.
Milan handed Liverpool back the momentum of the match, sitting back in two banks of four and allowing Liverpool to have possession. It took 20 minutes of this before Liverpool got their winner, with Henderson rifling home the ball on the half-volley from the edge of the area following a cleared corner. Even after going behind, Milan did little to adjust and Liverpool continued to keep the ball and whittle down the clock.
Liverpool and Milan may not play each other often, but it’s always eventful when they do.
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