UCL preview: Feyenoord vs. AC Milan – Team news, opposition insight, stats and prediction

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·11 February 2025

UCL preview: Feyenoord vs. AC Milan – Team news, opposition insight, stats and prediction

AC Milan return to Champions League action on Wednesday night as they take on Feyenoord away from home in the first leg of their play-off round tie.

In truth Milan did not want to even be in European action in February but dropped from sixth in the table to 13th after a defeat in the final round of the ‘league phase’ against Dinamo Zagreb. That meant direct last 16 qualification went up in smoke, and now two legs to get there stand in the way.

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As Sergio Conceicao stated in his pre-match press conference on the eve of the game, maximum focus must be on the path that his side now find themselves on, with Inter or Arsenal to potentially await if the Rossoneri were to get through.

Game date: Wednesday, February 12 Kick-off time: 21:00 (CET) Venue: De Kuip Referee: José María Sánchez (VAR: Munuera)

Team news

As mentioned, going into the final round of games in the first phase of the competition, Milan knew that a win would be enough to get a top eight spot in the Champions League. And yet, they were beaten 2-1 by Dinamo Zagreb in the Croatian capital, so dropped seven places.

Due to the nature of the seeding for the play-off round, the Diavolo knew that they would face either Feyenoord or Juventus in a two-legged tie to play for last 16 access, and they managed to avoid their domestic rivals in the end.

Despite the new five new additions that came in the winter window, Conceicao still has some big selection problems, particularly in the midfield department where there is a real lack of alternative options.

UEFA regulations state that only three new signings can be named in the squad for the knockout stages even in spite of their age or homegrown qualification. This has forced Milan to leave out Warren Bondo and Riccardo Sottil.

Alex Jimenez is not in the squad for the knockout rounds either. Despite the Spaniard’s young age, the Spaniard has not been in Italy for long enough yet to be considered eligible for List B. Luka Jovic was not named either.

Then there are the injured players: Alessandro Florenzi is on his way back but is not yet ready, Emerson Royal will be out for two-three months at least and Ruben Loftus-Cheek will not return until the Verona game on Saturday at the earliest.

Without Musah, Loftus-Cheek and Bondo, only Filippo Terracciano remains as an alternative option to the immovable midfield pairing of Youssouf Fofana and Tijjani Reijnders. Thus, there will be the temptation to launch the ‘fab four’ of Santiago Gimenez, Joao Felix, Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leao from minute one.

It is worth noting that Youssouf Fofana, Theo Hernández and Samuel Chukwueze are one yellow card away from having to serve a one-game suspension in the Champions League.

Despite the fact that this is the Rossoneri’s 11th game of 2025, Sergio Conceicao is not expected to make any changes to his best XI and will go as full-strength as possible in the hopes of bringing back a positive result to San Siro.

For this reason, Mike Maignan will be protected by a back four of Kyle Walker, Fikayo Tomori, Strahinja Pavlovic and Theo Hernandez, which has been his go-to defence in recent weeks. Tomori’s Serie A suspension will likely play a part in the decision-making here too.

In front of them, Conceicao is set to make the change to his favoured 4-4-2, so the midfield bank of four, from right to left, will be Christian Pulisic, Youssouf Fofana, Tijjani Reijnders and Rafael Leao – though the wingers should make somewhat of a 4-2-4 system.

Leading the line will be Joao Felix and Santiago Gimenez from the start for the first time, meaning we will see the ‘Fantastic Four’ for the first time in action from the get-go, but in fairness, it is more of a ‘Super Six’ with that midfield duo.

Predicted Milan XI (4-4-2): Maignan; Walker, Tomori, Pavlovic, Theo Hernandez; Pulisic, Fofana, Reijnders; Leao, Gimenez, Joao Felix.

Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images

The opponents

It has already been quite a turbulent 2024-25 season for Feyenoord, and that can in fact be distilled down to the last 48 hours. They lost Arne Slot to Liverpool in the summer and named Brian Priske as his replacement, yet he was sacked on Monday as the head coach following a difficult few months in charge.

Looking at the summer business done, Hwang In-beom was the most expensive arrival, signing for €7m from Red Star. Facundo Gonzalez, Ibrahim Osman and Hugo Bueno joined on loan from Juventus, Brighton and Wolves respectively.

Jeyland Mitchell (from Alajuelense), Jordan Lotomba (from Nice), Anis Hadj Moussa (from Patro Eisden) and Plameen Andreev (from Levski Sofia) all signed for between €1.2m and €2.5m.

There were some notable outgoings, above all Mats Wieffer – the heart of the midfield – headed to Brighton for €32m. Lutsharel Geertruida departed for RB Leipzig for €20m too. Ondrej Lingr was sold to Slavia Praha for €2.2m, Ramon Hendriks to Stuttgart for €1m and Alireza Jahanbakhsh left on a free.

Of course there was then the fact that they lost their star striker Santiago Gimenez to Milan for a fee of over €35m, while David Hancko was strongly linked with a move to Juventus that never ultimately materialised.

The main problem that led to Priske being asked is the fact that Feyenoord sit fifth in the league table, not only behind the runaway title challengers Ajax and PSV Eindhoven but also below FC Utrecht and AZ Alkmaar too.

The Rotterdam club have lost four games so far, two of them in De Klassieker against Ajax as well as to PSV and Utrecht. A run of one win in six domestically – including a 2-0 KNVB Cup quarter-final exit to PSV – cost the coach.

Feyenoord’s form in the Champions League is a symbol of their rollercoaster season. Home defeats to Bayer Leverkusen (0-4) and Red Bull Salzburg (1-3) came either side of beating Girona (2-3) and Benfica (1-3).

Then, they came from 3-0 down to earn a remarkable 3-3 draw away against Manchester City, before beating Sparta Praha 4-2 and Bayern Munich 3-0. A 6-1 defeat to Lille in the final round saw them finish 19th in the 36-team league.

The Dutch side confirmed on Tuesday that Pascal Bosschaart will ‘temporarily take over’ from Priske’s duties as the first team head coach. In terms of injury news, he certainly has a lot to contend with like his opposite number, as Bosschaart confirmed during his press conference.

“A lot,” Bosschaart responded to a foreign journalist’s question about how many injuries Feyenoord currently have. In addition to the already known absences of Justin Bijlow, Gernot Trauner, Ramiz Zerrouki, Jordan Lotomba, Calvin Stengs and Chris-Kévin Nadje, Bart Nieuwkoop has now been added.

“He will not be in the selection,” the trainer confirmed. There are also two doubtful cases: Facundo González and In-Beom Hwang: “We will decide about Facundo tomorrow morning. Hwang? There is a chance that he will not be there.”

Jakub Moder and Givairo Read, on the other hand, can make their Champions League debut. Quilindschy Hartman and Oussama Targhalline are not registered and therefore not eligible to play.

It seems that the new head coach will not make many changes to the starting XI fielded by Brian Priske at the weekend, and this continues to the system too – where Bosschaart will also field a 4-3-3.

Wellenreuther is expected between the sticks, whilst Beelen and Hancko should retain their spots in the centre of defence. However, Nieuwkoop and Hartman are both expected to lose their places at full-back to Read and Smal.

In midfield, there are no changes expected meaning Moder should make his debut in the competition, alongside Hwang and Timer – and the captain spoke earlier this afternoon about the game.

Then, Moussa and Paixão should sit either side of Carranza – who arrived earlier this season.

Predicted Feyenoord XI (4-3-3): Wellenreuther; Read, Beelen, Hancko, Smal; Moder, IB Hwang, Timber; Hadj Moussa, Carranza, Paixão.

Head to head

AC Milan and Feyenoord will meet for just the third time in a competitive game, and it will be the first time in over 55 years that the two sides have faced off against each other.

The Rossoneri met the Stadionclub in the 1969-70 edition of the European Cup, and they took a lead back to the Netherlands thanks to Nestor Combin’s goal at San Siro in the first leg.

However, it was Feyenoord that would make it through to the quarter-finals, with Wim Jansen and Willem van Hanegem each scoring back at De Kuip for a 2-1 aggregate win.

More generally speaking, Milan have played 27 times against teams from the Netherlands, with just 12 wins in that time, plus seven draws and eight losses.

Key facts and stats

➤ This will be just the third meeting between Feyenoord and Milan in European competition, with the pair winning one match each during their two-legged European Cup Round of Last 16 clash during the 1969-70 season – the Dutch team progressed to the next round (0-1 defeat away in the 1st leg and 2-0 win at home in the 2nd leg).

➤ Milan have failed to win any of their last four games in major European competition against sides from the Netherlands (D3 L1), since a 3-1 win over SC Heerenveen in the UEFA Cup in October 2008.

➤ Feyenoord have lost just one of their 11 home games in major European competition against sides from Italy (W6 D4), a 1-2 defeat against Roma in February 2015 in the UEFA Europa League Last 32.

➤ Milan have failed to win any of their last 11 away games in the UEFA Champions League knockout rounds (D4 L7), scoring just three goals in total across their last 10 matches in that run.

➤ Feyenoord are playing in the knockout rounds of the UEFA Champions League/European Cup for the first time since the 1984-85 season, losing 1-2 on aggregate to Panathinaikos in the first round (0-0 at home, 1-2 away).

➤ During the UEFA Champions League league phase this season, only matches featuring Barcelona (41) witnessed more goals in total than those involving Feyenoord (39). Of the 24 teams to progress from that stage of the competition, the Dutch side conceded the most goals (21).

Ones to watch

At the time of the draw we would have been highlighting Santiago Gimenez as Feyenoord’s main threat, but the spotlight will all be on him and his return to De Kuip. He will face a club where the fans fell in love with him as he fired them to the title the season before last, and what that means is that while the Mexican knows the defenders well, they know him well too.

Thus, it will be up to the fellow forwards in Leao, Pulisic and Joao Felix to supply Gimenez and create their own chances. What feels most important though is having Fofana to restore balance to the midfield, and the European experience of Walker to offset the sometimes over-aggressive centre-back pairing of Pavlovic and Tomori.

Now, Feyenoord’s main threat is the Brazilian winger Igor Paixao who has seven goals and 11 assists across all competitions, meaning he has even more goal contributions (18) than Gimenez had before his big move (14) albeit in 13 more games played.

Moussa is also on seven goals and is the threat on the other side, while Timber is the dynamic presence in the middle and Hancko very much the defensive anchor. Moder, who arrived from Brighton in January, will play an important midfield role.

Prediction

Feyenoord are a difficult team to call right now, especially with the change in head coach, but the chances of a Milan victory are, on the face of it, quite high. Not only are the Rossoneri set to field a very aggressive lineup, but with the Dutch outfit losing their star, their team looks a lot worse on a goalscoring front.

This game should have goals and it would be no surprise if they go in favour of Conceicao’s side.

Feyenoord 1-3 Milan