Red Bull Salzburg v AC Milan: Prediction, predicted line-ups & Europa League tips
Salzburg arrive unbeaten in their last five and Milan are looking for a first league-stage points in the Europa League after losing to Benfica. The numbers point to a tight game.
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Salzburg v AC Milan: round hook
Red Bull Salzburg host AC Milan at the Red Bull Arena on matchday two of the Europa League league stage, with both sides still shaping their position in a table where the top teams after eight rounds go straight through to the last 16. Milan have the harder start to repair. They lost 2-0 at home to Benfica on 16 September, and the form data shows they failed to score for the only time in their opening fixture. Salzburg, by contrast, are unbeaten in their last five. The bookmakers still make the visitors favourites at Evens, with the hosts at 5/2 and the draw at 27/10.
Red Bull Salzburg
AC MilanPath to the round
Salzburg's recent record reads four wins and a draw from five, with nine goals scored and three conceded, according to the recent-form data. They beat Pafos 1-0 at home and drew 3-3 away on 13 August, then won both legs against Mjallby AIF (1-0 away, 3-0 at home). They opened the league stage with a 1-0 win at Levski Sofia on 17 September. Four clean sheets in five matches suggest a settled defensive shape, though the one goalless-conceding gap came in that 3-3 draw.
Milan have played one match in the competition. They had 17 shots and 10 corners against Benfica on 16 September, with an expected goals figure of 0.96 for and 0.64 against, yet lost 2-0. The underlying numbers suggest a side that created enough to score, but the sample is a single game.
Rotation context
Midweek European football often brings rotation, but neither side has an obvious reason to rest players here. Milan have only the Benfica defeat to show from the competition, which points to a strong XI as they try to avoid a second straight loss. Salzburg have played five fixtures in 2026-27 competitions on the supplied data and have lost none, so little forces a change beyond the absentees listed below. Salzburg's recorded formation across their four lineups is 4-2-3-1, while Milan used a 3-4-2-1 against Benfica.
Red Bull SalzburgAC Milan
Line-ups
Red Bull Salzburg4-2-3-1- 52GChristian Zawieschitzky
- 39DL. Morgalla
- 44DK. Boma
- 47DValentin Zabransky
- 31DD. Schmid
- 32MA. Barry
- 15MB. Mazurek
- 35MJ. Lindstrøm
- 8MS. Kitano
- 20ME. Baidoo
- 9FH. Tabaković
AC Milan3-4-2-1- 16GM. Maignan
- 23DF. Tomori
- 5DK. De Winter
- 31DS. Pavlović
- 20MO. Hutchinson
- 30MA. Jashari
- 12MA. Rabiot
- 33MD. Bartesaghi
- 8MR. Loftus-Cheek
- 70MA. Cissè
- 73FF. Camarda
Where to watch
Kick-off is at 17:45 BST on Thursday 15 October 2026 at the Red Bull Arena. A UK broadcaster has not been confirmed for this fixture, and this page will be updated closer to kick-off. This is a league-stage match, so there is no extra time or penalty shoot-out: if level after 90 minutes, the points are shared.
Salzburg v Milan: the numbers
- The sides have met twice before, both in the 2022 Champions League group stage: a 1-1 draw in Salzburg in September 2022 and a 4-0 Milan win at the San Siro that November.
- Those two meetings averaged 3.0 goals, with one of the two games producing both-teams-to-score, according to the supplied H2H summary.
- Salzburg have kept four clean sheets in five matches this season and have failed to score in none of them.
- Milan's only European league-stage match this season produced 0 goals for and 2 against, despite 17 shots and 60% possession.
The draw
The strongest data point is Salzburg's record: four wins and a draw from five, with four clean sheets, according to the recent-form data. Milan are favoured at Evens, but their one European match produced 17 shots, an expected goals figure of 0.96 and no goals, which suggests wastefulness rather than a clear gap in quality. The numbers point to a closely contested match in which both sides score. The statistical risk is that Milan's sample is a single game, so their true level is hard to read, and a home side with a 4-2-3-1 shape that has conceded just three goals in five could also win it.