Ludogorets v Milan background
Ludogorets have enjoyed prior success during a UEFA Europa League turn of 32 theatre opposite Italian opposition, though they face a tough charge to obey their 2013/14 success opposite Lazio as they take on seven-time European champions AC Milan.
• The Rossoneri, creation their entrance in a UEFA Europa League, surfaced Group D, induction 11 points and scoring 13 goals, while their Bulgarian hosts done it by to a turn of 32 for a third time with a runners-up fixation behind Braga in Group C
Previous meetings
• The teams have never met in UEFA competition.
• Ludogorets’ usually prior encounters with Italian antithesis came in a 2013/14 UEFA Europa League turn of 32 when they kick Lazio 1-0 in Rome before clinching a tie with a 3-3 pull in Sofia – after a Serie A bar had led 2-0 and 3-2.
• Milan have won all 5 of their prior European knockout ties opposite teams from Bulgaria, many recently 3-0 on total opposite CSKA Sofia in a second turn of a 2001/02 UEFA Cup.
• Their altogether record in 10 games opposite Bulgarian opponents is W7 D2 L1 – they have won a final 5 matches.
Form guide
• Ludogorets have mislaid usually one of their final 9 European fixtures (W4 D4) – nonetheless they are though a win in 3 (D2 L1) – and usually one of their final 6 during home (W4 D1). That better came in their many new tour during a Ludogorets Arena – 1-2 opposite İstanbul Başakşehir on matchday five.
• The bar from Razgrad have not won any of their final 5 matches in a UEFA Europa League knockout proviso (D2 L3).
• Milan were undefeated in their initial 9 European matches this season, winning 7 of them (including a initial six), all underneath prior manager Vincenzo Montella. That record finished with a 2-0 detriment during Rijeka on matchday 6 – new trainer Gennaro Gattuso’s initial European diversion during a helm.
• 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.
• However, a Serie A bar are though an divided feat in prime European foe given they kick Bayern München 2-0 in Munich in a quarter-final of a 2006/07 UEFA Champions League – a run of 9 matches (D3 L6), during that they have conceded 22 goals.
• Milan have also mislaid their final 3 knockout matches, home and away, scoring one idea and surrender nine. They have won usually one of their final 7 knockout matches, losing five.
• Bulgarian champions for a past 6 seasons, Ludogorets reached a turn of 16 in their usually prior UEFA Europa League organisation theatre debate (2013/14). They also played in final season’s turn of 32 after transferring from a UEFA Champions League though mislaid 2-1 on total to FC København (1-2 home, 0-0 away).
• Sixth in Italy final term, Milan are behind in Europe after a four-year deficiency and creation their initial coming in a UEFA Europa League. They reached a turn of 32 in a final ever UEFA Cup of 2008/09, losing on divided goals to contingent runners-up Werder Bremen (3-3 on aggregate).
Links and trivia
• Gustavo Campanharo is a usually Ludogorets actor to have played opposite Milan. He came on as a underling for Verona on 19 Oct 2014 as his side mislaid 3-1 during home. Milan’s usually survivor from that diversion is Giacomo Bonaventura.
• Defender Cosmin Moţi has also played in Serie A, handling 4 games for Siena in 2008/09.
• MoÅ£i is one of 4 Ludogorets players – along with captain Svetoslav Dyakov, Marcelinho and Virgil Misidjan – who helped to better Lazio in a 2013/14 UEFA Europa League, nonetheless Dyakov missed a second leg after being sent off early in a second half during a 1-0 first-leg win in Rome. Milan’s Lucas Biglia played for a Italian bar in both legs of that turn of 32 tie.
• Milan’s Portuguese general striker André Silva scored a initial hat-trick of a 2017/18 organisation theatre on matchday one – in a 5-1 win during Austria Wien – and is a competition’s corner tip scorer with 6 goals, alongside Zenit’s Emiliano Rigoni and Dynamo Kyiv’s Júnior Moraes.
• This is a usually vital UEFA foe that Milan 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 European Cup Winners’ Cup.
• Milan’s Nikola Kalinić was a losing UEFA Europa League finalist in 2015, his Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk side going down 3-2 to Sevilla in Warsaw.
• Seeking a seventh unbroken Bulgarian joining title, Ludogorets led CSKA Sofia by a indicate during a winter break.
The coaches
• Hired in a summer of 2017, Ludogorets trainer Dimitar Dimitrov determined his coaching certification during home-town bar Neftochimik Burgas and helped land Bulgarian titles with Litex Lovech (1997/98) and Levski Sofia (1999/2000), a latter in tandem with a Bulgarian Cup after he had been lured in mid-season from a Bulgarian inhabitant team. He subsequently followed his career in a Middle East, Russia and Kazakhstan.
• Gennaro Gattuso transposed Vincenzo Montella as Milan manager on 27 November, earning graduation from a club’s girl team. A mythological Rossoneri midfielder of courage and attempt who played for a bar from 1999 to 2012, racking adult 468 appearances in all competitions, he won both Serie A and a UEFA Champions League twice and also carried a FIFA World Cup with Italy in 2006.