When Tottenham takes on AC Milan in the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie, they will be desperate to avoid their season imploding. Spurs are seeking to overturn a one-goal deficit upon Antonio Conte’s return to the dugout following a disappointing defeat in Italy last month.
Conte is poised to make his second comeback from gallbladder surgery, with his side crashing out of the FA Cup and seeing their gap to Liverpool in the race for fourth cut to just three points in his absence. Tottenham fell to a humbling 1-0 defeat to Wolves last weekend – the same scoreline they were subjected to at the San Siro three weeks ago.
But the north Londoners can take solace from Milan’s miserable record of just two wins from their last eight away games. The Rossoneri were beaten 2-1 on their trip to Fiorentina on Saturday, while former Inter boss Conte has won five of his last six home games against his former Milan rivals in all competitions.
The Champions League last-16 second-leg tie will take place on Wednesday, March 8, at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with kick-off at 8 pm. The match will be live on BT Sport 1 with coverage starting at 7 pm. BT Sport subscribers can live stream this match via the app on their computer, mobile and tablet devices. talkSPORT’s Adrian Durham will bring you updates from this match as part of our coverage from Bayern Munich vs Paris Saint-Germain. talkSPORT.com will also be running a live blog for all the action.
The hosts are without a number of stars through injury including Ryan Sessegnon, Hugo Lloris, Yves Bissouma and Rodrigo Bentancur. Eric Dier will also be missing due to suspension after picking up three cautions in the Champions League but Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg is back from a European ban of his own. The visitors will be hoping Brahim Diaz – who was the matchwinner in the reverse fixture – can feature after struggling with a knee sprain. Mike Maignan is back following a calf issue but 41-year-old Zlatan Ibrahimovic was left out of Milan’s squad for the knockout rounds.
Olivier Giroud has been involved in six goals in his last six UEFA Champions League appearances, twice as many as any other Milan player this season (4 goals, 2 assists). Giroud scored six goals in the competition with Chelsea in 2020-21, and five with Arsenal in 2015-16, and could become the second Frenchman to score 5+ goals in a single season for three different clubs, after Thierry Henry (Monaco, Arsenal and Barcelona).
Spurs striker Harry Kane has scored just one goal in seven UEFA Champions League games this season, having netted 20 in his first 24 appearances in the competition. However, he has scored six goals in his last six Champions League games at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Tottenham boss Antonio Conte has won five of his last six home games against AC Milan in all competitions, with the exception being a 2-1 defeat in October 2020 while in charge of Inter. Tottenham have conceded the first goal in five of their seven UEFA Champions League games this season, keeping a clean sheet in the other two games (2-0 vs Marseille, 0-0 vs Eintracht Frankfurt).
Milan have won their last three UEFA Champions League matches, last having a longer such run over a single season between February and April 2005 (5). They’ve not won both legs of a knockout stage tie in the competition since the 2004-05 quarter-final against Inter.
Tottenham have lost four of their last six home matches in the UEFA Champions League knockout stages (W2), including each of the last two (vs Ajax in 2018-19 semi-final and RB Leipzig in 2019-20 round of 16). AC Milan have been eliminated from just three of their 21 previous European Cup/UEFA Champions League knockout ties when winning the first leg, going out to Feyenoord (1969-70), Deportivo de La Coruña (2003-04) and Barcelona (2012-13).
Tottenham have progressed from two of their last three European ties when losing the first leg, doing so against Ajax in the 2018-19 UEFA Champions League semi-final, and against Paços de Ferreira in qualifying for the 2021-22 Europa Conference League. Milan have only ever won one of their 21 away games against English sides in all European competition (D7 L13), beating Manchester United 1-0 at Old Trafford in February 2005. They’ve lost their last three visits to London by an aggregate score of 9-1. Tottenham’s 1-0 defeat in the first leg was their first defeat in five meetings with AC Milan (W2 D2) in all European competition. Their two previous home games against them have finished 2-1 (April 1972) and 0-0 (March 2011).