Milan bounced back in style with a necessary 2-1 win away at Roma on Sunday, ending the latter’s impressive unbeaten run at home. After two consecutive defeats, therefore, they are back on the right track and will be looking to add another three points to their tally on Wednesday, taking on Udinese.
Stefano Pioli’s men were under some pressure to get the job done against Roma, considering its importance both in terms of the standings and confidence-wise. However, they didn’t seem bothered about this at all as they put in one of their best performances of the season, especially in the first half.
It will be important to continue on this path and prove the doubters wrong, once again showing that they indeed deserve to fight for the top spots. With four points behind their city rivals Inter, and six points ahead of Juventus in third place, they will be able to play without too much pressure on their shoulders.
TEAM NEWS
The injury situation has got worse for the Rossoneri, once again, as Hakan Calhanoglu, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Ante Rebic were all forced to leave the pitch against Roma due to injuries. Luckily, the latter will be available for the game tomorrow, but the other two will be out for longer.
In addition to the attacking duo, Ismael Bennacer and Mario Mandzukic are still on the injury list. As Pioli revealed during his press conference, he hopes that they will be back at the start of next week. The likes of Fikayo Tomori and Davide Calabria are struggling with fatigue but will be on the bench tomorrow.
There will be some changes to the starting XI, therefore, as the latest reports note. Alessio Romagnoli will link up with Simon Kjaer once again and will surely be hoping to put in a good performance after getting dropped last time out. For the right-back spot, it’s a battle between Pierre Kalulu and Diogo Dalot, with the former currently ahead.
The midfield will stay the same but there will inevitably be some new faces in attack, with Samu Castillejo and Brahim Diaz set to play from start. Rafael Leao will replace Ibrahimovic in the centre-forward role and Ante Rebic will keep his spot to the left, after getting on the scoresheet with a great goal vs. Roma.
Probable Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Donnarumma; Kalulu, Kjaer, Romagnoli, Theo Hernandez; Kessie, Tonali; Castillejo, Brahim Diaz, Rebic; Leao.
Probable Udinese XI (3-5-2): Musso; Becao, Bonifazi, Nuytinck; Stryger-Larsen, De Paul, Wallaca, Arslan, Zeegelaar; Pereyra, Llorente.
STATS
- Milan have won their last two games against Udinese in Serie A: the Rossoneri could win three consecutive matches against the Friulians in the competition for the first time since 2008.
- Only Inter (15) have picked up more points than Udinese (10 – W3, D1, L1) in the last five Serie A matches.
- Milan have picked up 50+ points for only the 6th time (52 so far) after 24 seasonal Serie A matches in the three points for a win era: in the previous five (most recently in 2011/12, 50) they ended the season in the top-two of the league.
- Udinese’s Rodrigo de Paul has scored two goals against Milan in Serie A, though both have been in Friuli – the first of these, in January 2017, was his first ever goal in the Italian top-flight.
- In the second half of this season (since 29th January), only Romelu Lukaku (six goals) has scored more goals than Milan striker Ante Rebic in Serie A (four goals in four appearances).
PREDICTION
It shouldn’t be as difficult as against Roma, at least on paper, and that win has surely given the Rossoneri a nice confidence boost. They are the favourites to win the game, therefore, but they can’t afford to underestimate the Bianconeri. Furthermore, it remains to be seen what effect that XI changes will have.
However, you can’t deny that Milan should win this clash and the feeling is that they will succeed as well. Without Hakan Calhanoglu and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ante Rebic will have to take on a bigger role and hopefully energise his new attacking companions. In short, it will be a very interesting clash.
AC Milan 2-0 Udinese
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