Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah are close to eclipsing goalscoring records of Michael Owen and Ian Rush respectively as Liverpool host AC Milan in the Champions League.
Should Mane score he will join Owen in joint-third place on the club’s all-time European goalscorers list with 22 goals, with only Steven Gerrard and Salah above them.
If Salah scores twice he will move into outright second place on the Reds all-time list of European scorers at Anfield – he currently has 13, with Rush on 14 and Gerrard on 24.
Mane could also become only the third Liverpool player to score 20 goals in Liverpool’s premier European competition after Gerrard (30) and Salah (26).
His next goal will see him become the 18th player to reach a century of goals for Liverpool in all competitions. He will join Kevin Keegan on exactly 100 goals.
Salah’s Anfield 100
Salah’s next appearance will be his 100th for Liverpool at Anfield. He has scored 71 times in the previous 99 in front of the Kop.
He has scored six goals in his last 19 home games.
Relying on Mo and Sadio?
Two players have scored all of Liverpool’s goals in their last five European outings – Salah has scored four, while Mane has two.
Last season, Salah scored six goals in Europe, netting one in six different matches.
Liverpool vs. Italy
Liverpool have met Italian opposition 14 times at Anfield, winning eight and losing five – with the defeats coming at the hands of Genoa (1992), Roma (2001), Fiorentina (2009), Udinese (2012) and Atalanta (2020).
They have scored in 12 of those 14 encounters, with only Roma and Atalanta keeping clean sheets.
In total, the Reds have won 14 of 33 outings against an Italian side, with 15 ending in defeat.
AC Milan vs. England
This will be their 42nd encounter with an English club. In the previous 41 they have won 12 and lost 17.
In away games against English clubs, they have won only one of 19 visits, with 11 defeats.
The win came at Old Trafford in the Champions League round of 16 in 2004/05 when Hernan Crespo’s 78th-minute goal beat Man United 1-0.
A familiar foe
Olivier Giroud is the oldest player to score a Champions League hat-trick. He was 34 years and 63 days when achieving the feat for Chelsea at Sevilla in December 2020.
Going into this campaign he was one of only 12 players to score a Champions League hat-trick for more than one team.
Giroud has scored eight times against Liverpool in 16 career matches with four of those coming in seven Anfield outings.
The referee
Szymon Marciniak (Poland) has refereed Liverpool four times in European competition, with the Reds winning both at home and losing both away.
His last Reds game in charge was the single goal defeat away to Atletico Madrid in February 2020.
This season’s scorers
Liverpool: Salah 3, Jota 2, Mane 2, Fabinho 1, Firmino 1
AC Milan: Leao 2, Giroud 2, Diaz 1, Ibrahimovic 1, Tonali 1
* Stats courtesy of LFC statistician Ged Rea (@ged0407).
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