Cisse records and a fitting opponent: All the key stats from RB Salzburg 0-4 AC Milan

AC Milan bounced back with a big win against RB Salzburg last night, putting four goals past the Austrian side, and the stats were thus very positive.

Ruben Amorim and his men silenced the critics with a strong performance at Red Bull Arena, despite a lot of rotation being made to the team. Indeed, the stats show that Milan dominated the game and Alphadjo Cisse certainly made things even more interesting with his hat-trick.

Dominating performance

Taking a look at the general stats from the game, Milan’s domination is pretty obvious. They may not have seen the most of the ball, coming in at 48%, but they created more big chances and had more shots on target.

Four goals from 3.99 in xG is pretty nice too, while Salzburg failed to work their way up to a goal on that front. The red card puts a little bit of a negative tone on the stats, but at least the Rossoneri managed to preserve the clean sheet in those dying minutes.

Cisse shines

It was a fantastic evening for the youngster. A hat-trick in itself is a great accomplishment, but he added quite a few cherries on top. First of all, in case you didn’t notice, it was a perfect hat-trick as he scored with his head, left foot and right foot.

Secondly, at 19 years and 358 days, he became the youngest Italian to score three or more goals in a major European competition. That is definitely something worth celebrating and only shows what a bright future he has ahead of him.

As if that wasn’t enough, if we shift the focus to Milan records, Cisse is the first Italian to score a hat-trick for the Rossoneri in a European competition since Filippo Inzaghi. The legendary striker also did it in a 4-0 win, beating Deportivo away from home in the Champions League in 2002.

Coincidence?

Yesterday’s win was the biggest that Milan have secured in European competitions since the 2022-23 season, when they beat (you guessed it!) Salzburg in the Champions League by the same scoreline. Olivier Giroud (x2), Rade Krunic and Junior Messias were the goalscorers at San Siro then.

Milan seem to love a high-scoring game against the Austrians, although it should be noted that their last away encounter with them (before yesterday) ended in a 1-1 draw. In any case, it’s a pretty amusing coincidence, if that’s the right word.

Expanding the discussion to all competitions, it’s the biggest win for Milan since the 2024-25 season, when they beat Udinese by four goals to nil in April. It had been a while since we got to celebrate in such style, in other words.