Milan take two-goal cushion to Barcelona fortress

FC Barcelona welcome AC Milan to the Camp Nou hoping that their home form will see them through to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League.

• Barcelona have not lost a European tie at the Camp Nou for more than three years and beat Milan in last season's quarter-finals and in the 2005/06 semi-finals. This time, however, the Italian side travel to Spain defending a 2-0 lead after first-leg goals from Kevin-Prince Boateng and Sulley Muntari at San Siro.

• Teams have recovered from losing the first leg to go through in 28 UEFA Champions League ties, although in only four did the victorious side overturn a deficit of more than one goal. No side has ever salvaged a two-goal first-leg defeat without the benefit of an away goal.

• Milan themselves hold the unenviable record for the biggest first-leg victory overturned in the UEFA Champions League era, losing 4-0 at RC Deportivo La Coruña in the 2003/04 quarter-finals having won 4-1 at home.

Previous meetings
• These two famous names have now met 16 times, Barcelona recording six wins to Milan's five and scoring 22 goals to the Italian side's 21. Barcelona's record at home against the Rossoneri reads W3 D3 L1.

• In last season's quarter-final, Milan and Barcelona drew 0-0 at San Siro before the Spanish side prevailed 3-1 in the return, Lionel Messi scoring two first-half penalties either side of Antonio Nocerino's 32nd-minute equaliser. Andrés Iniesta cemented victory for Josep Guardiola's side with a third goal after 53 minutes.

• The lineups on 3 April were:
Barcelona: Valdés, Alves, Piqué (Adriano 75), Mascherano, Puyol, Xavi (Thiago 63), Busquets, Fàbregas (Keita 78), Iniesta, Messi, Cuenca.
Milan: Abbiati, Abate, Mexès, Nesta, Antonini, Nocerino, Ambrosini, Seedorf (Aquilani 61), Boateng (Pato 69; Maxi López 82), Robinho, Ibrahimović.

• The clubs also met in the 2011/12 group stage. Their matchday one fixture at the Camp Nou on 13 September 2011 finished 2-2, Thiago Silva scoring Milan's 92nd-minute equaliser after Pedro Rodríguez and David Villa had overturned Pato's first-minute goal.

• Barcelona then won 3-2 in Milan on 23 November to consign their hosts to second place in their group. Xavi Hernández hit a 63rd-minute winner after Zlatan Ibrahimović and Boateng had cancelled out Mark van Bommel's own goal and Messi's penalty respectively.

• Frank Rijkaard's Barcelona were 1-0 aggregate winners against Carlo Ancelotti's Milan in the 2005/06 semi-finals en route to winning the second of their four European Cup titles. Ludovic Giuly's strike at San Siro proved decisive in a tie featuring Massimo Ambrosini for Milan and Víctor Valdés, Carles Puyol and Iniesta for Barcelona.

• Milan's first-leg win ended a run of seven matches without a victory against Barcelona going back to 20 October 2004, Andriy Shevchenko getting the only goal of that group stage game. Substitute Ambrosini played for the Rossoneri with Valdés, Puyol, Xavi and substitute Iniesta lining up for the Spanish side. Ambrosini is also a survivor of Milan's only win at the Camp Nou, 2-0 on 26 September 2000, with Francesco Coco and Oliver Bierhoff scoring.

• The clubs' most high-profile encounter was the 1994 UEFA Champions League final in Athens, Fabio Capello's Milan winning 4-0 with goals from Daniele Massaro (22, 45), Dejan Savićević (47) and Marcel Desailly (58). Milan also prevailed when the pair met in the 1989 UEFA Super Cup, winning 1-0 at home after a 1-1 away draw.

• Barcelona won the clubs' first two-legged contest 7-1 on aggregate in the first round of the 1959/60 European Champion Clubs' Cup.

Match background
• Barcelona are targeting a sixth successive quarter-final appearance and are undefeated in 19 UEFA Champions League home outings, winning 15 of them, since a 2-1 reverse against FC Rubin Kazan on 20 October 2009.

• Milan have already lost on Spanish soil once this season, 1-0 at Málaga CF, but did win twice on their travels in the group stage – scoring three goals at both FC Zenit St Petersburg and RSC Anderlecht.

• Milan's overall away record against teams from Spain is W4 D6 L13. The Rossoneri last won in Spain in the 2009/10 group stage, Pato's 88th-minute strike sealing a 3-2 victory at Real Madrid CF.

• Barcelona's overall record against Italian visitors is W11 D4 L2.

• Barcelona have won 11 ties in UEFA competition when they have lost the first leg away from home, although they have gone down in the other 13, most recently in last year's semi-finals when a 1-0 away defeat at Chelsea FC preceded a 2-2 draw at the Camp Nou. They have won five of 12 ties in which they have needed to overturn a first-leg defeat by two goals or more.

• Milan's aggregate success against Arsenal FC in last season's round of 16 ended a run of three defeats at this stage, putting them in the quarter-finals for the first time since 2006/07.

• While Milan have won 36 out of 41 UEFA competition ties in which they won the first leg at home, they have won 12 out of 13 when winning 2-0 at home first. The sole exception was against FC Girondins de Bordeaux in the 1995/96 UEFA Cup quarter-finals, when they went down 3-0 away.

• Barcelona's shoot-out record in UEFA club competitions is:
5-4 v KKS Lech Poznań, 1988/89 European Cup Winners' Cup second round
0-2 v FC Steaua Bucureşti, 1985/86 European Cup final
5-4 v IFK Göteborg, 1985/86 European Cup semi-final
4-1 v RSC Anderlecht, 1978/79 European Cup Winners' Cup second round
3-1 v Ipswich Town FC, 1977/78 UEFA Cup third round
5-4 v AZ Alkmaar, 1977/78 UEFA Cup second round

• Milan's shoot-out record is:
2-3 v Liverpool FC, 2004/05 UEFA Champions League final
3-2 v Juventus, 2002/03 UEFA Champions League final
7-6 v FK Lokomotiva Košice, 1978/79 UEFA Cup first round

Team ties
• The match marks a homecoming for Bojan Krkić, a graduate of Barcelona's La Masia academy, who played in their first team from 2007 to 2011, making 104 Liga appearances and scoring 26 goals. Bojan scored five times in 28 UEFA Champions League outings but was an unused substitute in Barcelona's 2009 and 2011 final triumphs.

• Riccardo Montolivo and Ignazio Abate played in Italy's 4-0 defeat by Spain in the UEFA EURO 2012 final in Kyiv last July. Jordi Alba was among the scorers for a Spain side also featuring Gerard Piqué, Xavi, Iniesta, Cesc Fàbregas, Sergio Busquets and second-half substitute Pedro.

• Fàbregas had earlier scored in the 1-1 group stage draw against Italy in Gdansk, where the only Milan representative was late substitute Nocerino.

• Fàbregas hit the winning penalty when Spain overcame Italy in the UEFA EURO 2008 quarter-finals and struck Arsenal FC's opener in a 2-0 victory at Milan, who included Ambrosini, in the second leg of the 2007/08 round of 16 at San Siro, securing an identical aggregate success. Mathieu Flamini was alongside him in Arsenal's team that night and also played with Alex Song during his time in London.

• Messi equalised as his Argentina side came from behind to win 2-1 away to a Colombia team captained by Mario Yepes in a FIFA World Cup qualifier in Barranquilla in November 2011.

• Iniesta scored the extra-time winner as Spain overcame a Netherlands side featuring Nigel de Jong in the 2010 World Cup final.

• Christian Abbiati (Club Atlético de Madrid), Robinho (Real Madrid) and Cristián Zapata (Villarreal CF) have all had spells in Spanish football. Zapata played in Villarreal's 5-0 reverse at the Camp Nou in August 2011, but Robinho won 1-0 in Barcelona with Madrid in December 2007.

• Thiago Alcántara was born in San Pietro Vernotico in Italy, where his father Mazinho was playing for US Lecce and where he also represented ACF Fiorentina. Thiago made his international debut for Spain in a 2-1 loss to Italy in Bari in August 2011, Montolivo scoring for the Azzurri.

• Alexis Sánchez scored in Udinese Calcio's 4-4 draw at Milan in 2010/11. That was his solitary goal in seven league and cup meetings with Milan during three years in Udine which brought three wins, two draws and two defeats.

• Javier Mascherano was in the Liverpool FC team beaten 2-1 by Ambrosini's Milan in the 2007 UEFA Champions League final in Athens.

• Villa put an 82nd-minute winning penalty past Marco Amelia when Valencia CF defeated Genoa CFC 3-2 in the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League group stage. The Barcelona forward struck a 95th-minute winner in the return in Italy with Amelia not playing.