Following the mid-week win in the Champions League, AC Milan will be looking to clinch all three points against Monza on Sunday morning. Having fallen behind in the Scudetto race, a win is almost a must for the Rossoneri.
Stefano Pioli’s men were knocked out of the Champions League despite beating Newcastle in the final round. They will now have to focus on the Europa League, as well as Serie A, instead and tomorrow an important game awaits.
After the defeat against Atalanta, Milan need to bounce back with a strong performance at San Siro, taking on Monza. If not for the Scudetto race, the Rossoneri at least need to win to cement the third spot in the standings.
Game date: Sunday, December 17
Kick-off time: 12:30 (CET)
Venue: San Siro
Referee: Gianluca Aureliano (VAR: Paterna)
Team news
The injury situation is looking a bit better for Milan and Pioli as Simon Kjaer has recovered from his injury. The Dane has been on the sidelines for around two months and his return is crucial, given the injuries of Pierre Kalulu, Marco Pellegrino and Malick Thiaw.
On the other hand, Yunus Musah is suffering from muscle fatigue and will miss out on the game tomorrow. The depth is much better in midfield though, compared to the defence, and it’s not an emergency for the manager to be without the American.
Davide Calabria is also suspended, due to the silly red card against Atalanta, and this means Alessandro Florenzi will play on the right-hand side again. Theo Hernandez, meanwhile, should be back on the left as Kjaer is set to start in the centre of the defence.
In midfield, there have been contradicting reports but it seems Tommaso Pobega has won the battle against Ismael Bennacer. The latter recently returned from a serious injury and Pioli evidently doesn’t think he’s ready to start a game just yet.
As for the attacking trio, Samuel Chukwueze was knocking on the door for a starting spot, especially given the winner against Newcastle. However, Christian Pulisic (who also scored last time out) should get the chance again on the right flank.
Probable Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Florenzi, Kjaer, Tomori, Hernandez; Pobega (Bennacer), Reijnders; Pulisic, Loftus-Cheek, Leao; Giroud.
The opponents
Monza will be without the defender Pablo Mari and the striker Gianluca Caprari for the game tomorrow. Raffaele Palladino, the manager, will be able to fare without them as he has good options in the squad.
This season, Monza have collected an impressive 21 points from the first 15 games and thus find themselves in 9th place. They are just eight points behind Milan and given the relatively small budget, Palladino deserves praise for his work with this team.
The red and white side have lost just four games this season, the same as Milan, and the losses came against the big teams (Atalanta, Inter, Juventus and Roma). In other words, they are no pushovers and tomorrow’s clash should be an interesting one.
Andrea Colpani has been the big breakout this season with six goals scored so far, and he also scored in the pre-season clash against Milan. Although not a classic No.9, he has a knack for getting into the right spaces and also has a good shot.
A familiar face in the Monza XI is, of course, the Milan loanee Lorenzo Colombo. He has scored three goals this season and will surely be looking for more, now with a chance to impress the Rossoneri.
Probable Monza XI (4-2-3-1): Di Gregorio; Pereira, D’Ambrosio, Carboni, Kyriakopoulos; Pessina, Gagliardini; Colpani, Mota, Ciurria; Colombo.
Head to head
These two teams faced each other for the first time in Serie A last season, as Monza made their first campaign in the top flight after getting promoted. Milan ended up winning both games, though, the first one by 4-1 and the other by a mere 1-0.
Brahim Diaz was the protagonist of the last game at San Siro with a solo goal to open the scoring. He got his brace before the end of the first half with a great turn and finish, while Divock Origi and Rafael Leao completed the goal fest.
Match facts…
➤ AC Milan have won both of their previous matches against Monza in Serie A. Only Atalanta have recorded three victories out of three against the Brianza team in the top flight.
➤ Monza have lost all of their last three matches against Lombard teams in Serie A (all away), conceding 10 goals and scoring only two – as many defeats as in their first seven games against teams from their own region in the competition (W2 D2).
➤ AC Milan are the only team that has not yet drawn any home matches this season in Serie A (W5
L2). The last draw for the Rossoneri in a home league game was back in May against Cremonese. Since then, they have recorded eight wins and two defeats.
➤ AC Milan have lost three of their last seven league matches (W2 D2), as many defeats as they managed in their previous 21 Serie A games (W13 D5 L3). Furthermore, the Rossoneri have not lost two consecutive matches in the competition since February of last year (a run of three – against Lazio, Sassuolo, and Inter).
➤ After a streak of four consecutive wins in matches played at 12:30 in the league, Milan lost their most recent game at this time – 2-5 at the Meazza against Sassuolo on January 29th, 2023. As for Monza, they have only lost one of their five games played at 12:30 in Serie A (W2 D2), with their only defeat coming against Roma on October 22nd.
➤ Monza have avoided defeat in 10 of their last 12 league matches (W4 D6), with the only two defeats during this period coming against Roma and Juventus
➤ AC Milan have conceded 61% of their goals in this Serie A season in the last 30 minutes of play (11/18), only Las Palmas (77%) and Nice (67%) have conceded more goals than the Rossoneri in the final 30 minutes across the big five European leagues 2023/24.
➤ In the last two seasons of Serie A, with Rafael Leão on the field, AC Milan have averaged two points per game, with a win percentage of 57% (27/47). Without him, however, the average points drop to exactly one point and the win percentage falls to 33% (2/6).
➤ Olivier Giroud, who has scored four goals in his last four league matches, is one of two players to have scored the most headed goals in the calendar year 2023 in the big five European leagues – eight, tied with Harry Kane. Three of the Frenchman’s last four Serie A goals have come from headers.
➤ In addition to being the goalkeeper with the most saves (54) this season, Michele Di Gregorio is also the second goalkeeper with the highest save percentage in Serie A 2023/24 (80%), behind only Yann Sommer (82%) (min. three matches played).
Ones to watch
It will be very interesting to see Simon Kjaer back in action after such a long absence. Reports suggest that he has been experiencing discomfort when sprinting, so hopefully that has been fully resolved as there could be some sprinting duels tomorrow.
In addition to the Dane, having Theo Hernandez back on the left-hand side could be a huge boost. The Frenchman’s trademark runs have been missed and it remains to be seen if he can put Monza in trouble tomorrow.
As for Monza, it’s clear that Andrea Colpani is a huge threat to the Milan backline and he will need to be kept under control. We saw in the pre-season clash what he can do with just a little bit of space, so the defenders will have to stay close to him.
It’s impossible, furthermore, to not mention Lorenzo Colombo here. The Milan loanee has had a promising start to the season but can do even more, and tomorrow is an opportunity for him to show the Rossoneri management his true value.
Prediction
It will likely not be a walk in the park for Milan, but the improved situation in defence and the confidence boost from mid-week should help them a lot. And with it being a home game, the Rossoneri are the clear favourites.
Monza have shown that they can score against the big teams, though, so a clean sheet might not be on the cards for Mike Maignan.
AC Milan 2-1 Monza
Leao should not be rushed after such an injury. The main reason why we have so many injuries is becouse Pioli dosent rotate. Typical small team coach behavior.
Agree Leao shouldnt be rushed and Chuk and Pulisic should start