Slavia Prague vs AC Milan

Fortuna Arena sets the stage for the return leg of an action-packed Europa League last-16 tie between Slavia Prague and AC Milan.

Despite being reduced to ten men midway through the first half, Slavia Prague scored twice in a goal-glutted 4-2 first-leg loss in Italy to secure a fighting chance ahead of the return fixture. Jindrich Trpisovsky’s side followed that defeat with a thumping 4-0 home win against domestic rivals Teplice at the weekend and will need to replicate that scintillating performance to reach the quarter-finals of a European competition for the first time since 2020/21. However, the history books spell trouble for Slavia, even though they defeated Milan’s Serie A rivals Roma 2-0 at home in this season’s Europa League group stages. That victory ended their dismal eight-game winless run against Italian clubs (D3, L5) but formed part of five wins across six group-stage contests (L1).

On the other hand, Milan eked out a narrow 1-0 home win against Serie A minnows Empoli at the weekend to leapfrog Juventus to second in the standings. However, the Scudetto conversation is long gone, with ‘I Rossoneri’ lagging 16 points behind pacesetters Inter. That intensifies pressure on Stefano Pioli to lead Milan past the Europa League round of 16 after back-to-back failed attempts to reach the quarter-finals. Last season’s Champions League semi-finalists can draw confidence from racking up an eye-catching nine clean sheets across their 13 previous encounters against Czech opponents. But they’ve recently struggled on their European travels, picking up just one win in their last seven away European games (D3, L3), courtesy of a 2-1 triumph at Newcastle United in this season’s Champions League group-stage finale.