Milan, who are among the top seeds in the draw as the Italian Serie A champions, have been paired in Group E of the 2022-2023 Champions League with Chelsea, Salzburg and Dinamo Zagreb.
Logic suggests that Milan and Chelsea are the favorites for the first two places in the group which will give access to the round of 16 of the competition. Both teams are the ones with the best record in the tournament: the ‘rossoneri’ have been proclaimed European champions seven times (1963, 1969, 1989, 1990, 1994, 2003 and 2007) and only Real Madrid has been surpassed they are on the list of winners with 14 titles, while the ‘blues’ won the Champions League in 2012 and 2021.
Milan, with the same block
Last season, Milan won their first ‘scudetto’ since 2011 under the guidance of coach Stefano Pioli and kept almost the same squad, led by Zlatan Ibrahimovic who at the age of 40 is recovering from a serious knee injury, except for Franck Kessie (Barça) and Alessio Romagnoli (Lazio). In addition, he was strengthened by two begas: the striker Divock Origi (free from Liverpool) and the playmaker Charles De Ketelaere, his big bet, to whom at the age of 21 he paid 32 million euros in Bruges.
Tuchel, with many changes to the squad
Chelsea, who finished third in the Premier League last season, still have Thomas Tuchel on the bench but their squad has undergone a number of changes. Marc Cucurella (Brighton), Raheem Sterling (City), Kalidou Koulibaly (Naples), Conor Gallagher (Crystal Palace) and Carney Chukwuemeka (Aston Villa) were, a week before the end of the market, their main signings, as they left . the club Timo Werner (Leipzig), Lukaku (Inter), Rüdiger (Real Madrid), Christensen (Barça) and Malang Sarr (Monaco).
Salzburg wants to repeat the feat
RB Salzburg, winner of the Austrian Bundesliga for the last nine seasons, will try to surprise and compete with Milan and Chelsea for one of the first two places. In the last edition of the Champions League he achieved this by finishing first in the group ahead of Lille, Seville and Wolfsburg and, in the round of 16, his attacking football and quick transitions caused many problems for Bayern Munich in the first leg (1 – 1) before being overwhelmed by Germany (7-1).
It remains to be seen if his coach Matthias Jaissle can get Salzburg out, the same performance after the important march of Karim Adeyemi (Borussia Dortmund), Brenden Aaronson and Rasmus Kristensen (both in Leeds).
Dinamo Zagreb, faced with an impossible mission
For its part, Dinamo Zagreb have also dominated Croatia for the last five consecutive seasons but in the Champions League they have yet to make it past the group stage. In this edition, Ante Cacic’s team passed three rounds to access the league. After defeating Shkupi from North Macedonia and Ludogorets from Bulgaria, they eliminated Norwegian Bodö/Glimt from the playoffs on Wednesday after coming back from 1-0 in the first leg after extra time (4-1).
Source: La Verdad
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