If you’re searching for the AC Milan vs SSC Bari timeline, here’s the short answer: these two clubs have met only a handful of times in living memory, and their most recent and most notable meeting was a Coppa Italia first round tie on 17 August 2025, which Milan won 2-0 at San Siro. That gap is the story. Milan is a permanent fixture near the top of Serie A, while Bari has spent most of the last fifteen years outside it, so their paths rarely cross. Below, you’ll find the full breakdown of that 2025 match, an honest look at the head-to-head record, and what’s happened to both clubs since.

The AC Milan vs SSC Bari Timeline: Why This Fixture Is So Rare

AC Milan and SSC Bari aren’t rivals in any traditional sense. There’s no shared city, no long-running grudge, and no annual fixture that fans circle on the calendar. What connects them is simply Italian football’s cup structure and the occasional overlap of their two very different trajectories.

Milan has been a fixture of Serie A for almost the entire post-war era. Bari, by contrast, has bounced between Serie A, Serie B and Serie C multiple times, most recently being reformed as a new legal entity in 2018 after the original club’s financial collapse. When Bari is playing in the second or third tier, as it has for most of the past decade, the only realistic way these two clubs meet is in the Coppa Italia, Italy’s domestic cup, where teams from different divisions are occasionally drawn together.

17 August 2025: AC Milan 2-0 SSC Bari, Coppa Italia First Round

The two sides met at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza (San Siro) in the first round of the 2025-26 Coppa Italia. Milan were the Serie A side, Bari the visitors from Serie B, and the gap in level showed on the pitch.

Rafael Leão opened the scoring in the 14th minute, and Christian Pulisic doubled the lead in the 48th, either side of half-time. The final score was 2-0 to Milan, with the hosts dominating possession (65% to 35%) and shots (24 to 6). Attendance was recorded at 71,061 in an 80,018-capacity stadium.

Milan lined up in a 3-5-2 under then-manager Massimiliano Allegri, with Mike Maignan in goal and a midfield built around Youssouf Fofana and Samuele Ricci. Bari, managed at the time by Fabio Caserta, played a 4-3-3, with Gabriele Moncini leading the line. Leão was forced off with an injury during the first half, which slightly overshadowed the result from a Milan perspective, though the club progressed to the next round comfortably.

The Head-to-Head Record, and Why You’ll See Different Numbers Online

Here’s something worth being upfront about. If you search for a full AC Milan vs SSC Bari head-to-head record, you’ll find wildly different figures depending on where you look. Some pages claim the clubs have met 77 times since 1928, with detailed scorelines going back nearly a century, including a supposed 9-1 Milan win in 1949 and a famous Bari upset in the early 1990s.

We couldn’t verify those figures against a reliable, checkable source, and one live-match data provider (FotMob) that tracks head-to-head records for upcoming fixtures showed a far smaller sample: three Milan wins, one draw and no Bari wins across the meetings it had on record at the time of the 2025 tie. The gap between “77 matches” and a handful of tracked results is large enough that we’d rather say plainly that comprehensive, fully verified historical data for this exact pairing isn’t something we could confirm to a standard we’re comfortable publishing.

If you want the full official archive, Transfermarkt’s club-versus-club pages are the standard reference point for Italian football statisticians, and we’d point you there directly rather than repeat second-hand numbers we can’t stand behind.

AC Milan Since That Match

Milan finished the 2025-26 Serie A season in 5th place, missing out on Champions League qualification, and were knocked out of that season’s Coppa Italia at the round of 16 stage. That underperformance led to a significant off-pitch shake-up: chief executive Giorgio Furlani, sporting director Igli Tare, head of recruitment Geoffrey Moncada and manager Allegri all left the club at the end of the season.

In June 2026, Milan appointed Ruben Amorim as head coach, days after his departure from Manchester United. Amorim had previously won two league titles at Sporting CP before his spell in England. The club remains majority-owned by RedBird Capital Partners (99.93%), with Paolo Scaroni as chairman.

SSC Bari Since That Match

Bari’s 2025-26 season went the other way entirely. The club finished 17th in Serie B, went through three different managers (Fabio Caserta until late November, Vincenzo Vivarini into January, then Moreno Longo), and lost a relegation play-out to Südtirol after two goalless legs, going down on their lower league position. Bari will play Serie C football in 2026-27.

There’s also a serious financial story running alongside the football one. In mid-2026, prosecutors opened an investigation into Bari’s ownership, Filmauro (the De Laurentiis family’s holding company), over alleged false accounting and fraudulent bankruptcy, and requested judicial liquidation proceedings. Investigators pointed to recurring losses of roughly €30 million between 2019 and 2025 and questioned whether the club could continue operating without extraordinary financial support from its sole shareholder. This is a live legal matter, so anything written about it now could be out of date within weeks, and we’d recommend checking Italian football news outlets for the latest before relying on it.

Could AC Milan and SSC Bari Meet Again Soon?

Realistically, not for a while. With Bari now in Serie C and Milan competing at the top end of Serie A and in Europe, a league meeting is off the table, and a cup draw pairing them again is a matter of chance rather than routine. The Coppa Italia remains the only plausible route, and even that depends on how far Bari progresses through the qualifying rounds each season and how the draw falls.

FAQ: 

When did AC Milan last play SSC Bari?

The two clubs last met on 17 August 2025, in the first round of the Coppa Italia. AC Milan won 2-0 at San Siro, with goals from Rafael Leão and Christian Pulisic. It was the most recent confirmed meeting between the sides.

What was the final score in the 2025 Milan vs Bari match?

AC Milan won 2-0. Rafael Leão scored in the 14th minute and Christian Pulisic added a second in the 48th. Milan dominated the match statistically, with 65% possession and 24 shots to Bari’s 6.

Why don’t AC Milan and SSC Bari play each other more often?

Because they’re usually in different divisions. Milan has stayed in Serie A almost continuously for decades, while Bari has moved between Serie A, Serie B and Serie C, including a full club reformation in 2018. Their paths mostly only cross through the Coppa Italia.

Has SSC Bari ever beaten AC Milan?

Historical claims of a Bari win over Milan, often placed in the early 1990s, appear across several sites, but we couldn’t confirm the details against a source reliable enough to state as fact here. If you want a verified answer, Transfermarkt’s head-to-head archive is the place to check.

What division does SSC Bari play in now?

Bari play in Serie C for the 2026-27 season, having been relegated from Serie B after finishing 17th and losing a relegation play-out to Südtirol on both legs finishing goalless.

Who is AC Milan’s current head coach?

Ruben Amorim, appointed in June 2026 after leaving Manchester United. He replaced Massimiliano Allegri, who left at the end of the 2025-26 season after Milan finished 5th in Serie A.

Where was the 2025 AC Milan vs SSC Bari match played?

The match was played at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, better known as San Siro, in Milan. The stadium has a capacity of 80,018, and the attendance for this fixture was recorded at 71,061.

Is SSC Bari in financial trouble?

Yes, at the time of writing. Prosecutors opened an investigation in 2026 into Bari’s ownership over alleged false accounting and fraudulent bankruptcy, and requested judicial liquidation proceedings, citing recurring losses of around €30 million between 2019 and 2025. This is an ongoing legal matter, so check current Italian football news for the latest position.