Liverpool v Milan, you say? Don’t mind if I do. Two clubs oozing European pedigree but which the gods of randomness have previously decreed never should meet outside Champions League finals. Everyone will remember the phenomenal 2005 final, fewer the more humdrum 2007 version, but those are the only ever competitive meetings between these sides. Liverpool have played Inter four times, Juventus and Napoli six times each, and Roma on seven occasions, but somehow their orbit and Milan’s never quite intersects. Liverpool have played Udinese, Genoa and Fiorentina as often as they have played the Rossoneri.

But now they are set to double their all-time head-to-head match count in the space of a few weeks, and we are alive to witness it. Milan have started their domestic season handily – three wins in their first three games with a 7-1 aggregate – and Liverpool likewise – three wins in their first four games with an 8-1 aggregate. With Atlético Madrid and Porto also in the group there’s little room for error here: three home wins and one positive away result is the most obvious formula for progression.
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