Internazionale and Crvena Zvezda have faced on two previous occasions in European competition, with the Italian side progressing 2-1 on aggregate in the quarter-finals of the 1980-81 European Cup (drew 1-1 at home and won 1-0 away).

Including qualifiers, Crvena Zvezda haven’t won any of their last eight matches against Italian sides in European competition (D4 L4). Indeed, their last such victory came back in December 2005, in a 3-1 win versus Roma in the UEFA Cup group stages.

This will be only the second time this century that an Italian and Serbian side have faced each other in a UEFA Champions League campaign, after Napoli and Crvena Zvezda’s two meetings in the group stage in 2018-19 (Napoli won 3-1 at home and drew 0-0 away).

Internazionale are unbeaten in their last nine home games in the UEFA Champions League (W7 D2), while they last went 10 without defeat between February 2009 and November 2010 – a period within which they went on to lift the trophy in this competition (2-0 v Bayern Munich in the 2009-10 final).

Crvena Zvezda have lost all nine of their away games in the UEFA Champions League (since 1992-93), with only AEK Athens (15) and APOEL Nicosia (14) playing more away matches in the competition without managing a single victory.

Internazionale have kept 13 clean sheets in their last 22 games in the UEFA Champions League; the most by any side since the start of the 2022-23 campaign. On MD1, they became just the second side to face Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City away from home in the competition and keep a clean sheet (also Sporting CP in March 2022).

The average age of Internazionale’s starting XI against Manchester City was 29 years and 363 days; the second-oldest of any team on MD1 of this season’s UEFA Champions League, only behind Slovan Bratislava (30y 115d).

The two players who applied the most high-intensity pressures to opponents on MD1 of this season’s UEFA Champions League were Internazionale duo Mehdi Taremi (102) and Nicolò Barella (77). Indeed, Internazionale as a team applied 110 more high pressures than any other team (518).

Timi Elsnik has created the most chances (4), completed the most passes (58) and line-breaking passes (16), and recovered possession the most times (8) of any Crvena Zvezda player in the UEFA Champions League this season.

Yann Sommer has saved 88.2% of the shots on target he’s faced for Internazionale in the UEFA Champions League (30/34). Indeed, of goalkeepers to appear in the last two editions of the tournament, only Borussia Dortmund’s Gregor Kobel (+7.7) has prevented more goals than Sommer (+4.1), based on the total xG of shots on target faced.