This will be the fifth meeting between Inter Milan and Liverpool in European competition. Each of the previous four have been in the knockout stages of the European Cup/Uefa Champions League, with Inter progressing over two legs in the 1964-65 semifinals - a year in which they went on to lift the trophy - and Liverpool emerging from the round of 16 in 2007-08.
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Liverpool have won their last two away games against Italian opponents in the Uefa Champions League, beating Atalanta in 2020-21 and AC Milan earlier this season. This is just one victory fewer than they managed in their first 14 away games against Italian sides across all European competitions (D3 L8).
In the current Uefa Champions League format (since 2003-04), Inter Milan have been eliminated from two of their previous three two-legged knockout ties against English opponents. All three of these have been at the round of 16 stage, losing out to Liverpool in 2007-08 and Manchester United in 2008-09, before eliminating Chelsea in 2009-10.
Liverpool won both meetings with AC Milan during this season’s group stage, including a 2-1 win at the San Siro. The only team to have recorded wins over both AC Milan and Inter Milan in the same European Cup/Uefa Champions League campaign was Spurs in 2010-11, under Harry Redknapp.
Inter Milan have won their last two home games in the Uefa Champions League, one more than they had managed in their previous nine between November 2018 and September 2021 (D5 L3). The last time they recorded three consecutive home wins in the competition was between December 2009 and November 2010 (a run of seven), during which time they lifted the trophy in 2009-10 under José Mourinho.
Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp has won 49 of his 87 games in the Uefa Champions League to date. Should his side win this game, he would become just the eighth coach to reach 50 wins in the competition (after Ferguson, Ancelotti, Guardiola, Wenger, Mourinho, van Gaal and BenÃtez), as well as the first German to do so.
Inter Milan striker Edin Džeko has scored in each of his last three appearances against Liverpool, netting one for Manchester City in 2015 and two for Roma in the semifinals of this competition in 2017-18. Indeed, Džeko is one of only three players to have scored in both legs of a knockout tie against Liverpool in the Uefa Champions League, along with Arsenal’s Emmanuel Adebayor in 2007-08 and Chelsea’s Didier Drogba in 2008-09.
Mohamed Salah could make his 50th Uefa Champions League appearance for Liverpool in this game, while he has scored 32 goals in his 49 appearances to date. Among players to have made 50+ appearances for a specific club in the competition, only Cristiano Ronaldo (51 for Real Madrid) and Robert Lewandowski (36 for Bayern Munich) have netted more as of their 50th game.
Lautaro MartÃnez scored five goals in his first five starts for Inter Milan in the Uefa Champions League (in 2019-20), but has since only netted one goal in his last 12 starts. Since scoring against Real Madrid in November 2020, the Argentinean striker has played 697 minutes without finding the net in the competition.
Since making his first Uefa Champions League appearance for Liverpool in September 2017, Mohamed Salah has been directly involved in more goals following carries (moving 5+ metres with the ball) than any other player in the competition (14 – 10 goals, four assists), while his 10 goals after carries is also the most in this period.