Milan vs Dortmund facts

With only three points separating the four teams in UEFA Champions League Group F, AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund have little margin for error as they meet at San Siro in the penultimate round of fixtures.

The German club – held 0-0 at home by Milan on Matchday 2 – lead the way on seven points, one ahead of Paris Saint-Germain with Milan third on five points and Newcastle United on four.

Dortmund have won their last two fixtures while Milan finally gained their first victory of the 2023/24 competition at the fourth attempt last time out, beating Paris 2-1.

Previous meetings 

Milan wins 3
Dortmund wins 2
Draws 2
Milan goals 9
Dortmund goals 8

Neither side was able to find a breakthrough in Dortmund on Matchday 2 – Milan's second successive goalless draw in Group F and a second game without a goal for their hosts.

The previous matches in the sides' seven meetings came in the 2002/03 Champions League second group stage, when each recorded a 1-0 away win. Filippo Inzaghi's 49th-minute strike earned Milan victory in Germany; Dortmund's Jan Koller scored the only goal in the 80th minute of the San Siro return.

Despite that loss on the final day of Group C, Milan finished top of the section and went on to win their sixth European Cup; Dortmund were knocked out after coming third, a point behind runners-up Real Madrid.

The German club had triumphed in the previous season's UEFA Cup semi-final between the clubs, doing most of the damage with a 4-0 win in the home first leg thanks mainly to a first-half hat-trick from Márcio Amoroso. Inzaghi and Cosmin Contra scored in the first 18 minutes of the Milan return to threaten an unlikely comeback, but the third goal did not arrive until the 92nd minute thanks to a Serginho penalty and two minutes later Lars Ricken sealed BVB's aggregate win.

Dortmund went on to lose 3-2 to Feyenoord in the Rotterdam final.

Milan had won 5-2 on aggregate in the 1957/58 European Cup quarter-final between the sides, the first leg in Dortmund finishing 1-1 before a 4-1 home success in Milan. The Rossoneri reached their first European Cup final, losing 3-2 to Real Madrid in Brussels.

Form guide

Milan

Record vs German clubs: W17 D12 L9 F60 A44
Home record vs German clubs: W12 D4 L2

Before Matchday 2 Milan had not played German opponents since the 2008/09 UEFA Cup round of 32, when they were knocked out on away goals by Werder Bremen (1-1 a, 2-2 h) despite leading 1-0 in Germany and 2-0 in Italy.

Milan have drawn their last three home games against Bundesliga visitors 2-2.

The Rossoneri have not lost to German opponents since that home defeat by Dortmund in March 2003; their subsequent record, home and away, is W3 D7.

The 1-0 loss to Dortmund in March 2003 is Milan's only home defeat by German visitors in their last 17 games (W12 D4), since their first game – a 3-4 loss to Saarbrücken in the 1955/56 European Cup first round first leg, their first ever European game and a tie they won 7-5 on aggregate.

Milan are making their third successive Champions League group appearance and a 20th overall, three behind Juventus's Italian record of 23.

The seven-time European champions – who claimed their first title at Wembley, the venue for this season's final, in 1963 – reached the knockout rounds for the first time since 2013/14 last season. They finished second behind Chelsea in Group E and then knocked out Tottenham and Napoli (1-0 h, 1-1 a) only to lose another all-Italian tie, against neighbours Inter, in the last four (0-2 h, 0-1 a).

Stefano Pioli's side failed to win their first three games in this season's competition, drawing 0-0 at home to Newcastle and at Dortmund before a 3-0 loss in Paris, kick-starting their campaign with a 2-1 home defeat of the French club last time out.

Despite five victories in 2022/23 and this season's defeat of Paris, Milan have won only eight of their last 29 Champions League games (D9 L12). The win against Paris is one of only seven in their last 20 home fixtures, group stage to final (D7 L6).

Milan were Champions League winners in 1994, 2003 and 2007 and runners-up in 1993, 1995 and 2005. They are the only Italian side to triumph more than once in the Champions League era.

The Rossoneri finished fourth in Serie A in 2022/23, 20 points behind champions Napoli.

Dortmund

Record vs Italian clubs: W12 D7 L19 F46 A59
Away record vs Italian clubs: W4 D2 L12

Matchday 2 was Dortmund's first game against an Italian club since a 1-1 draw at home to Lazio on Matchday 5 of the 2020/21 Champions League.

They had lost 3-1 in Rome, their fourth defeat in their last five matches in Italy (D1).

Dortmund's one Champions League triumph came at the expense of Italian opposition in the 1997 final when they beat Juventus 3-1 in Munich.

Last season's Bundesliga runners-up are in the Champions League group stage for the 18th time over and the eighth successive season. All but two of their ten most recent campaigns have extended into the knockout rounds.

In 2022/23, Edin Terzić's team were second in Group G behind eventual champions Manchester City before being knocked out by Chelsea.

That was the third time BVB had been eliminated in the last 16 in their last five Champions League campaigns.

This season Dortmund began with a 2-0 loss in Paris before being held at home by Milan but breathed life into this campaign by beating Newcastle away (1-0) and at home (2-0).

The Matchday 3 win at Newcastle was only Dortmund's ninth victory in their last 31 European away matches (D6 L16), although all of those wins have come in their last 23 (D2 L12).

European champions in 1997 and runners-up to Bayern in the 2013 final at Wembley, Dortmund missed the chance to deny Bayern an 11th successive Bundesliga title in 2022/23, drawing 2-2 at home to Mainz on the final day to allow the Munich club to overtake them at the top of the table.

Links and trivia

Christian Pulišić scored 19 goals in 127 appearances for Dortmund in all competitions between 2015 and 2019. He came on at half-time of their 2-1 victory against Eintracht Frankfurt in the 2016/17 German Cup final.

Milan defender Malick Thiaw is a German international who made 61 first-team appearances for Schalke between 2020 and 2022, when he moved to Milan.

Have also played in Germany:
Luka Jović (Eintracht Frankfurt 2017–19, 2021)
Simon Kjær (Wolfsburg 2010–13)

Jović was part of Frankfurt's German Cup-winning squad in 2017/18.

Has played in Italy:
Emre Can (Juventus 2018–20)

Have played together:
Christian Pulišić & Marco Reus (Dortmund 2016–19)
Noah Okafor & Karim Adeyemi (Salzburg: 2020–22)
Luka Jović & Marius Wolf (Frankfurt 2017/18)

Julian Brandt was in the youth system of Wolfsburg when Kjær played there in 2012/13.

International team-mates:
Christian Pulišić, Yunus Musah & Giovanni Reyna (United States)
Malick Thiaw & Niklas Süle, Julian Brandt, Emre Can, Nico Schlotterbeck, Niclas Füllkrug, Marius Wolf, Karim Adeyemi, Youssoufa Moukoko, Felix Nmecha (Germany)
Tijjani Reijnders & Donyell Malen (Netherlands)
Noah Okafor & Gregor Kobel (Switzerland)

Füllkrug scored one goal and set up another as Germany beat the United States 3-1 in a friendly on 14 October. Pulišić scored for the USA, with Musah also playing 90 minutes.

Latest news

Milan

Milan earned only their second win in seven games in all competitions on Saturday (D2 L3), a Theo Hernández penalty in first-half added time proving enough for a 1-0 win against Fiorentina at San Siro.

Hernández is the only defender to have scored two or more goals in each of the last five Serie A seasons.

Substitute Francesco Camarda became the youngest player in Serie A history aged 15 years 260 days, beating the record of Bologna's Wisdom Amey (15 years 274 days).

Four days after the Matchday 3 win against Paris, Milan let slip a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at Lecce, ending the game with ten men after a late red card for Olivier Giroud.

Giroud had earlier scored his seventh goal in 11 Serie A matches, while midfielder Tijjani Reijnders struck his first for the Rossoneri after joining in the summer.

It was the second consecutive away Serie A match in which Milan had drawn 2-2 after being two goals up after their game at Napoli on 29 October.

The Matchday 4 defeat of Paris is Milan's only other victory in their last seven games in all competitions.

Milan went down 1-0 at home to Udinese on 4 November. Having also lost 1-0 to Juventus on 22 October, Milan suffered successive home Serie A defeats without scoring for the first time since September 2012.

The Rossoneri had kept five clean sheets in six games before losing to Juventus; Saturday was the first they had managed since, conceding ten goals in their previous six matches.

Milan have won seven of the first eight Serie A games in two of their last three seasons, also doing so in 2021/22. They had managed the feat only twice in the previous 67 seasons.

Giroud scored two late goals as a substitute in France's UEFA EURO record 14-0 win at home Gibraltar on 18 November.

Rafael Leão was forced off after ten minutes against Lecce with a thigh injury and has not played since.

Noah Okafor went off with a thigh injury in Switzerland's 1-0 UEFA EURO 2024 qualifying loss to Romania on 21 November and was missing for Milan at the weekend.

Defender Pierre Kalulu will be out for about four months after suffering a thigh injury against Napoli. Marco Pellegrino, his replacement in that game, fractured a bone in his left foot.

Defender Mattia Caldara is expected be out for about three months after undergoing ankle surgery in September.

Simon Kjær has not played since Matchday 3 due to a muscle injury.

Marco Sportiello has been out with a muscle problem since 18 October.

Ismaël Bennacer has not been included in Milan's Champions League squad as he is recovering from the knee ligament injury suffered in the first leg of last season's semi-final.

Dortmund

On Saturday Dortmund recovered from 2-0 down at home to Borussia Mönchengladbach to win 4-2. Goals from Marcel Sabitzer, Niclas Füllkrug and Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, his first of the season, gave them the lead by half-time, substitute Donyell Malen sealing the win deep into added time at the end of the match with his first since 16 September.

Füllkrug has scored in Dortmund's last three games in all competitions.

After a nine-match unbeaten run (W6 D3) to start the league season Dortmund had lost their previous two Bundesliga games – 4-0 at home against Bayern München on 4 November and 2-1 in Stuttgart a week later.

Gregor Kobel saved a penalty at Stuttgart, the first Dortmund goalkeeper to do so in the Bundesliga since Roman Weidenfeller in October 2013, although Stuttgart's winning goal was another spot kick.

BVB were unbeaten in their first nine Bundesliga matchdays for only the third time in their history.

On 20 October a Julian Brandt goal had given Dortmund a 1-0 home victory against Werder Bremen. It was Brandt's 300th Bundesliga appearance; aged 27 years 171 days, he is the third youngest player to reach the landmark.

In a 3-3 draw in Frankfurt on 29 October Sabitzer scored his first Bundesliga goal for Dortmund and Youssoufa Moukoko his first of 2023/24.

BVB have 24 points in this season's Bundesliga, two more than after 12 games last season.

The 4-2 win against Union Berlin on 7 October was Mats Hummels' 207th Bundesliga victory for Dortmund, surpassing the club record held by Michael Zorc. In Frankfurt the defender made his 350th league appearance for Dortmund, overtaking Roman Weidenfeller, and is now on 353; only Zorc has played more (463).*

On 1 November Dortmund prevailed 1-0 in the German Cup second round against Bundesliga rivals Hoffenheim, Marco Reus – who made his 400th BVB appearance three days later against Bayern – scoring the only goal.

Dortmund will visit Stuttgart in the last 16 on 6 December.

On 16 November Giovanni Reyna was on target in the United States' 3-0 win against Trinidad & Tobago in the CONCACAF Nations League quarter-final first leg.

The following day later Moukoko scored in Germany's 4-1 2025 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying win against Estonia. With six goals after four games, the striker is the top scorer in qualifying.

On 18 November Füllkrug struck for Germany in a 3-2 friendly defeat against Türkiye before Sabitzer registered in Austria's 2-0 friendly win against Germany three days later.

On 15 November Switzerland's Kobel was an unused substitute in a 1-1 UEFA EURO 2024 qualifying draw against Israel. He missed a 1-1 draw against Kosovo – a result that sealed a place at next summer's finals – and a 1-0 defeat at Romania because of a thigh injury but played 90 minutes for Dortmund on Saturday.

Felix Nmecha missed Germany's friendlies in the international break with a hip problem and was also absent at the weekend.

Sébastien Haller missed Saturday's victory due to illness.

Emre Can (bruised knee) started on Saturday having missed five games.

Mateu Morey has been out with a knee injury since 7 September although he was an unused substitute on Saturday.

Julien Duranville is yet to play in 2023/24 for Dortmund's first team after suffering a muscle injury in pre-season, although he did make his comeback for the Under-19 team on 24 September only to suffer a setback and has not appeared since.