Milan vs Tottenham LIVE: Champions League team news and line-ups as Skipp and Sarr start

Tottenham visit AC Milan in the first leg of the Champions League last-16 at the San Siro tonight.

Antonio Conte’s side progressed to the knockout stages after a dramatic victory in Marseille, with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s late goal securing top spot with the last kick of the game. Spurs come into the test against the Italian champions reeling, however, following a 4-1 thrashing at Leicester on Sunday, as well as a number of injury absences.

Tottenham have been rocked by the news that Rodrigo Bentancur has been ruled out for the season and with Hojbjerg and Yves Bissouma also injured, Conte starts with an inexperienced midfield duo tonight. Harry Kane will hope to lead Tottenham towards the quarter-finals, however, as they face a Milan side who have also been struggling for form.

The Serie A champions have lost four of their last five matches in all competitions under Stefano Pioli, including heavy defeats to Inter, Lazio and Sassuolo. Milan, who are seven-time European champions, are looking to reach their first Champions League quarter-final since 2012. Follow all the latest build-up and team news ahead of Milan vs Tottenham, below.

Milan vs Tottenham LIVE: Latest Champions League updates

• Champions League last-16 first leg kicks off at 8pm GMT at San Siro

• Tottenham topped Group D while Milan finished runners-up to Chelsea in Group A

• Spurs without Bentancur, Hojbjerg and Bissouma in midfield

• AC Milan: Tatarusanu; Thiaw, Kalulu, Kjaer, Hernandez; Saelemaekers, Krunic, Tonali; Diaz, Giroud, Leao

• Tottenham: Forster; Emerson, Romero, Dier, Lenglet, Perisic; Sarr, Skipp; Kulusevski, Kane, Son

AC Milan - Tottenham Hotspur FC

The last time Milan hosted Tottenham

19:36 , Jamie Braidwood

It’s 12 years to the day since Tottenham last played AC Milan in the San Siro, in what was one of the club’s greatest nights. Peter Crouch’s goal earned a 1-0 win for Tottenham, before they knocked the Italian side out in the next leg to reach the quarter-finals.

The match is perhaps best remembered, though, for Gennaro Gattuso’s headbutt on Joe Jordan after the final whistle.

“Gattuso lost himself,” Jordan told Sky in 2016. “It was a big game, he was captain of his club, we won the game and he had problems with one or two of the players. He had a problem with the referee. He obviously had a problem with himself. He picked on an old man like me.”

Milan vs Tottenham

19:28 , Jamie Braidwood

“The more concerning point is how the financial gap between England and everyone else means it’s still so much for opposition to overcome. Chelsea’s easy group-stage wins over Milan felt so instructive.

“So, while a fixture between Tottenham and the Italian champions feels like it should be huge – and that Milan are of course the bigger club – it takes a different perspective if you stand back. It is one of Europe’s wealthiest clubs against a side in the third financial tier. That usually tends to tell, and is often forgiving for the wealthier side.

The great encouragement for Milan beyond their own return to form this weekend, however, is how Leicester eviscerated Spurs on Saturday. Milan, coincidentally, are one place – and €12m (£10.6m) – ahead of Leicester in the latest Deloitte Football Money League.

“They are seven places and - more importantly – 50 per cent of the revenue behind Spurs. If it feels so dreary to be talking about this, that is the world that Uefa and the Premier League have created.”

The Champions League is back – and the Premier League is primed to dominate

The Champions League is back – and the Premier League is primed to dominate

19:13 , Jamie Braidwood

As managers such as Stefano Pioli and Marco Rose try to work out how to set up against English clubs for the Champions League’s returns, executives across the competition’s clubs are actually thinking in similar terms. Such is boardroom fear of Premier League power that there is now an increasing refrain in meetings: “Something must be done.”

It remains to be seen whether that something will be the Super League that was relaunched last week and is intended to supplant the Champions League itself. It is nevertheless a feeling that frames the knockout stages, especially amid the expectation that at least three English clubs will get through from the last 16 for the fourth time in five years.

Something very significant did actually happen in the Premier League itself, of course, that could well influence this future. Manchester City were charged with multiple breaches of the English competition’s rules, and essentially accused of fraud. That at least changes the atmosphere around another core theme going into these knockout games.

The last-16 fixtures are the first in the Champions League since the World Cup, and it could also be said that also means they represent the first of a new era in football.

Champions League knockout stage preview, by Miguel Delaney

The Champions League is back – and the Premier League is primed to dominate

Milan vs Tottenham

19:03 , Jamie Braidwood

Here are Tottenham - they are facing AC Milan for the first time since 2011 tonight, but they played at the San Siro two seasons ago against Inter.

Is Antonio Conte too stubborn to improve his Champions League record?

18:56 , Jamie Braidwood

For a self-proclaimed winner, it is a return to the place he last won. Two seasons in the dugout at San Siro brought Inter Milan’s first Scudetto for 11 years. It is the sort of achievement that burnished Antonio Conte’s image of himself. He has five league titles in his last seven full seasons in club football. Jurgen Klopp, Thomas Tuchel and Carlo Ancelotti, to name but three, cannot claim as much.

If they are placed on a higher managerial plane, deemed among the real elite, it is because of the Champions League. Facing AC Milan takes Conte back, and not merely because he is a former Juventus and Inter manager. His last Champions League final was against Milan: 20 years ago, when he was a Juventus substitute and they lost on penalties at Old Trafford. It was also an all-Serie A final, something which feels implausible now, when Milan are outbid by Bournemouth for players, when Conte’s stuttering Tottenham are arguably favourites in a two-legged tie against the reigning Italian champions.

The gap on Conte’s CV lies in Europe. Not as a player: during his Juve career, they reached four Champions League finals and he played in three, winning one. But as a manager: he has never reached the last four.

AC Milan vs Tottenham preview by Richard Jolly

Is Antonio Conte too stubborn to improve his Champions League record?

Milan vs Tottenham: Confirmed line-ups!

18:51 , Jamie Braidwood

As expected, Tottenham look very short in midfield with Bentancur and Bissouma injured and Hojbjerg suspended. Antonio Conte has one solution left and goes with Oliver Skipp, 20, and Pape Matar Sarr, 22, as his midfield pair.

Tottenham look strong up front with Kane, Kulusevski and Son all starting, while Clement Lenglet is preferred to Ben Davies at left centre-back.

What a night it is too for goalkeeper Fraser Forster, who stands in for the injured Hugo Lloris. The 34-year-old previously played in the Champions League with Celtic.

Milan vs Tottenham: Confirmed line-ups!

18:44 , Jamie Braidwood

AC Milan: Tatarusanu; Thiaw, Kalulu, Kjaer, Hernandez; Saelemaekers, Krunic, Tonali; Diaz, Giroud, Leao

Tottenham: Forster; Emerson, Romero, Dier, Lenglet, Perisic; Sarr, Skipp; Kulusevski, Kane, Son

Milan vs Tottenham

18:28 , Jamie Braidwood

Antonio Conte says he is still not 100 per cent following gallbladder surgery but added it’s important to be back with the team in difficult situation

“For sure, it was really difficult to stay far from the team,” he said.

“Because you have a sense of responsibility that you want to stay every moment with your players, to breathe the environment in every situation.

“But this problem happened and now I’m feeling much better than before.

“I’m not still 100 per cent but I think I’m recovering well, it’s very important for me to stay with the team, work with them and try to stay together in a difficult moment for us.”

Milan vs Tottenham

18:14 , Jamie Braidwood

Antonio Conte effectively confirmed Oliver Skipp and Pape Matar Sarr will start tonight at the San Siro

“We have the solution in our house, with the two young players, Skippy and Pape Sarr.

“You know we are talking about two young players, their first game in the Champions League, they are really young - 20 and 22 years old.

“Especially for this reason we have to be good to help them to overcome the emotion, and then we trust them.”

Milan vs Tottenham: Conte suggests some Spurs players collapse under pressure

17:58 , Jamie Braidwood

Antonio Conte has suggested some of his Tottenham players are prone to collapsing under pressure ahead of tonight’s last-16 first-leg tie at AC Milan.

Conte, who says he is still not 100 per cent following gallbladder surgery, watched his side beat champions Manchester City and then follow it up by being thrashed 4-1 at Leicester at the weekend, when a spot in the Premier League top four was theirs for the taking.

Spurs have notoriously failed in big moments over the years and Conte has hinted some of his players cannot live with the pressure.

“If you want to win or achieve some targets and have a good position in the Champions League or in England in the Premier League you have to be stable,” he said. “And this stability is lacking this year. I always talk about it with my players. It is very difficult to keep concentration, it is very difficult to stay focused all of the time.

“It is not an easy task being so focused. We are working on that, playing under pressure all of the time is good for some players and bad for others. Sometimes players feel motivated, other times they feel so much under pressure that they can’t perform.

“Maybe for a period they have a good performance and then they collapse all of a sudden if they feel too much pressure. We are working on this, we want to make our players more resilient.”

Milan vs Tottenham

17:52 , Jamie Braidwood

Milan boss Stefano Pioli thinks his side, the current champions of Italy, are equal to Spurs.

He said: “We believe we’re equal to Tottenham. Winning the Champions League is a dream but it’s useless to think about it now.

“A week ago, they beat Manchester City, but we don’t come in better or worse than them. It will be a big game that we will have to play well.”

Milan vs Tottenham: Early team news

17:48 , Jamie Braidwood

Spurs face a midfield crisis with Rodrigo Bentancur ruled out for the rest of the season after the midfielder ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in the fixture against Leicester.

Yves Bissouma is also injured while Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg is unavailable through suspension. Captain Hugo Lloris and left-back Ryan Sessegnon also miss out through injury.

Milan are boosted by the return of Fikayo Tomori and Ismael Bennacer but remain without Alessandro Florenzi, Sergino Dest, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Mike Maignan.

Predicted line-ups

AC Milan: Tatarusanu; Kalulu, Kjaer, Tomori; Saelemaekers, Bennacer, Tonali, Hernandez; Diaz, Leao; Giroud

Tottenham: Forster; Romero, Dier, Lenglet; Porro, Sarr, Skipp, Perisic; Kulusevski, Son; Kane

Milan vs Tottenham odds and prediction

17:47 , Jamie Braidwood

AC Milan: 13/10

Draw: 23/10

Tottenham: 9/5

Prediction

With both sides’ inconsistent league form, it is tough to know how this fixture will turn out. A home crowd combined with Spurs’ massive absentees in the middle of the park will make Milan favourites but the away side’s dogged display against Man City may provide the blueprint for a snatch-and-grab away performance. AC Milan 1-1 Tottenham

Milan vs Tottenham

17:46 , Jamie Braidwood

The Champions League first leg will kick off at 8pm GMT on Tuesday 14 February.

How can I watch it?

Milan vs Tottenham will be shown live on BT Sport 1 and BT Sport Ultimate, with coverage starting from 7pm.

Milan vs Tottenham LIVE: Latest Champions League updates

17:45 , Jamie Braidwood

Hello and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of Tottenham vs AC Milan in the first leg of the Champions League last-16 at the San Siro tonight.

Antonio Conte’s side progressed to the knockout stages after a dramatic victory in Marseille, with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s late goal securing top spot with the last kick of the game. Spurs come into the test against the Italian champions reeling, however, following a 4-1 thrashing at Leicester on Sunday, as well as a number of injury absences.

Tottenham have been rocked by the news that Rodrigo Bentancur has been ruled out for the season and with Hojbjerg and Yves Bissouma also injured, Conte is set to field an inexperienced midfield duo tonight. Harry Kane will hope to lead Tottenham towards the quarter-finals, however, as they face a Milan side who have also been struggling for form.

The Serie A champions have lost four of their last five matches in all competitions under Stefano Pioli, including heavy defeats to Inter, Lazio and Sassuolo. Milan, who are seven-time European champions, are looking to reach their first Champions League quarter-final since 2012.