Rijeka v Milan background
The die is already expel for Rijeka and AC Milan as they finish their Group D programme.
• The Croatian side, with usually 4 points to their name, can no longer validate for a knockout proviso since their Italian visitors, now underneath new manager Gennaro Gattuso, have already cumulative their swell as organisation winners.
Previous meetings
• Matchday dual brought a dual teams together for a initial time in UEFA foe and it valid to be a thespian affair. Milan seized a 3-2 feat with an added-time leader from Patrick Cutrone after Rijeka had clearly warranted an doubtful indicate with dual late goals, a second a 90th-minute Josip Elez penalty.
• Rijeka unsuccessful to measure in their usually prior confront with Serie A opponents – a 2-0 total detriment to Juventus in a 1979/80 European Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-finals.
• Milan have won all 5 of their matches opposite antithesis from Croatia and are nonetheless to concur on Croatian soil.
Form guide
• Rijeka have mislaid their final 3 European home fixtures and have usually one win in their final 7 (D2 L4).
• Milan are undefeated in 9 European matches this season, winning 7 of them – all of those games underneath prior manager Vincenzo Montella.
• The Rossoneri have competent from any of their final 13 groups in UEFA foe and have now extended their impasse into a open in each one of their 15 European campaigns this century.
• Croatian pretension winners for a initial time final term, Rijeka are in their third UEFA Europa League organisation theatre debate yet have never reached a knockout phase.
• Sixth in Italy final season, Milan are behind in Europe after a four-year deficiency and are creation their initial coming in a UEFA Europa League organisation stage. They got to a turn of 32 in a last-ever UEFA Cup debate of 2008/09.
Links and trivia
• The tour from Milan to Rijeka is around 400km.
• André Silva scored a initial hat-trick of a 2017/18 organisation theatre on matchday one and is a competition’s joint-top scorer, alongside Zenit’s Emiliano Rigoni, with 6 goals.
• This is a usually vital UEFA foe a Rossoneri have not won. Ajax, Bayern München, Chelsea, Juventus and – as of final May – Manchester United are a usually 5 clubs to have won a European Cup/UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League and UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup.
• Milan’s Nikola Kalinić was a losing UEFA Europa League finalist with Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in 2015, his side going down 3-2 to Sevilla in Warsaw.
• Croatian striker Kalinić was holding his initial comparison stairs during Hajduk Split (2005–09) while Rijeka’s Mate MaleÅ¡ and Filip Bradarić were personification for a club’s girl team.
• Former team-mates:
Rijeka’s Maxwell Acosty and Milan’s Riccardo Montolivo (Fiorentina 2009–12);
Rijeka’s Josip Elez and Milan’s Lucas Biglia (Lazio 2013-16) – yet Elez never played a comparison diversion for a club.
• Suspended for subsequent compare if booked: Manuel Locatelli, Mateo Musacchio (Milan).
The coaches
• Rijeka’s longest-serving coach, Slovenian Matjaž Kek was allocated in 2013 and directed a group to their initial joining championship and fourth Croatian Cup in 2016/17. A defender and manager during Maribor, where his father and son also played, he was Slovenia trainer from 2007 to 2011.
• Gennaro Gattuso transposed Vincenzo Montella as Milan manager on 27 November, earning graduation from his position in assign of a club’s girl team. A mythological Rossoneri midfielder of courage and endeavour, he won a UEFA Champions League twice with a bar and also carried a FIFA World Cup with Italy in 2006.