AC Milan v FC Barcelona: Did you know...

AC Milan v FC Barcelona: Did you know...

All three times that the sides have met over two legs in the European Cup it has been FC Barcelona that have gone though

The fifth Milan v Barça in two seasons has thrown up a host of curiosities, and here we we pick out a selection of the best:

• All three times that the sides have met over two legs in the European Cup it has been FC Barcelona that have gone though. They first crossed paths way back in 1959/60 (5-1 and 0-2), and in the UCL era they met in the semis of 2005/06 (0-1 and 0-0) and the quarters last year (0-0 and 3-1).

• AC Milan, however, beat FCB in the Supercup of 1989 (1-1 and 0-1) and in the Athens final of 1994 (0-4). They have also played four times in the group stages 2000/01 and 2004/05 with one Barça win, two for the Italians and one draw.

• It is nine years since FC Barcelona lost in an official meeting with AC Milan. That was on October 20, 2004 (1-0 in Milan).

• The Italians were one of the eight runners-up in the group stages (8 points in group C). FC Barcelona topped group G with 13 points.

• In their three home fixtures, Milan only got two points and got just one goal, against Malaga.

AC Milan has ‘shared’ more players with FC Barcelona than any other club. No fewer than 15 players have moved from the San Siro to the Camp Nou or vice-versa. Here is a reminder of who they all were.

• One of these is Bojan Krkic, who is currently at AC Milan. He last played for Barça away to Malaga on May 21, 2011. He scored a penalty that day (1-3).

Carles Puyol has played in all of the last nine meetings with AC Milan.

Alexis Sánchez played AC Milan seven times when he was at Udinese. His side won three, drew two and lost two of those matches, and he got one goal.

Javier Mascherano was in the Liverpool side that lost the Champions League final to AC Milan in 2007.

• AC Milan have seen more yellow cards than any other team in this competition (17). Bonera, Flamini and Montolivo are all one short of a suspension.

• Barça has four in the same situation: Song, Mascherano, Pedro and Adriano, who has not travelled.

• Of the 55 goals scored by AC Milan this season, 40 have been in the first half.

• The game will be refereed by Scotland’s Craig Thomson, who has taken charge of two Barça games in the past. Those were the 1-3 win at Bayer Leverkusen last season and the 5-1 win at the Camp Nou against Shakhtar Donetsk in 2010/11. He has never officiated an AC Milan match before.

Força Barça
Força Barça

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