Good evening and welcome to our LIVE text coverage of the 2011/12 Serie A curtain-raiser as reigning champions Milan host Lazio!

Aquilani is put though on goal! Great block by Bizarri at point blank range!

Aquilani, in his Milan debut, takes the free kick low towards the near post but it's cleared for a corner, which also comes to nothing.

Andre Dias is put under heavy pressure by Gattuso near the corner flag trying to clear, and concedes a free-kick as a result.

Cassano brings down a lofted pass into the box, but Konko does well to dispossess him. It only gets as far as Boateng on the edge of the box, but his effort limps wide.

Ledesma's 30-yard drive is only just over the bar. Good hit!

Konko's deep cross attempt is blocked by Bonera and out for a throw.

It's Lazio who start brightest in the opening moments, but several attempts at a final ball into the Milan area fall foul of the back line. The hosts, on the other hand, twice stray offside on the break.

The visitors kick us off. Serie A is finally up and running for 2011/12!

Here we go, kick off is moments away. Live match updates coming up!

The teams are in the tunnel at the San Siro, and we are five minutes away from the beginning of the Italian season!

TEAMS - Milan: Abbiati, Abate, Nesta, Thiago Silva, Antonini, Gattuso, Ambrosini, Aquilani, Boateng, Ibrahimovic, Cassano. Lazio: Bizzarri, Konko, Biava, Dias, Zauri, Ledesma, Brocchi, Cisse, Hernanes, Mauri, Klose.

Compounding matters from the statistical point of view, Lazio's last league win against the league holders came in 1998, a 2-1 win at the Olimpico, while their last win in Milan was a further nine years back.

Right, onto the task at hand for Edorado Reja's men tonight at the San Siro. Milan have lost just one of their last 24 season openers (a 2-1 home defeat against Bologna in 2008), and just once so far in 2011 (1-0 at Palermo). Lazio have their work cut out for them.

The Italian domestic season is finally upon us... though up until this past Monday, we weren't sure if that would be the case. Monday was the day Serie A and the Italian Players' Union finally settled their dispute.