Serie A Week 12 – Sunday 30 October 2022 – Stadio OlimpicoTorino| Preview by Tlalane Phahla – Follow her on Twitter
The defending champions Milan are looking to make it five wins in a row tonight when they visit struggling Torino at the Stadio Olimpico di Torino. A victory will keep the champions abreast with league leaders Napoli who played yesterday, and by the time Milan play, they’ll know the fate of both Atalanta and Lazio who are two points behind. The scudetto race is shaping up to be an interesting one with Napoli looking unstoppable at the moment as they stretch their run to 12 wins in a row, playing the most free-scoring and attractive football in the league. Milan know its important to stay as close as possible the leaders and fight to retain their title.
Torino
The hosts may have been able to pick up a point against the champions last season, but given their form so far, it’s hard to think they can stop Milan tonight. It is worth noting before that goalless draw, they had lost their previous four against Milan without scoring. Talking about scoring, in this fixture Torino have failed to score a goal in their last 464 minutes, the last time they scored was in September 2019 in a 2-1 victory over Milan. Coincidentally, that was their last victory against the Rossoneri. They come into this game with their tails up after beating Udinese last week with a backs against the wall performance, and if they somehow win tonight, it will be the first time they’ve won two matches in a row since January.
Expected XI (3-4-2-1): Milinkovic-Savic; Djidji, Schuurs, Rodriguez; Lazaro, Lukic, Linetty, Vojvoda; Miranchuk, Vlasic; Pellegri
Match Facts
- No current Torino player has scored a Serie A goal against AC Milan; considering all competitions, their only player to have netted against them is Antonio Sanabria, for Real Betis in October 2018, in the UEFA Europa League.
- Torino are Ante Rebic’s favourite opponent across the big 5 European leagues; he has scored five goals in the five appearances against them (one for Fiorentina), including his only brace (on May 12 2021, in a 7-0 win for Milan).
- Torino and Milan have drawn seven of their last 11 Serie A meetings in Turin (two win each), including the most recent one in April; since 2006/07, Milan are the side against which the Granata have drawn the most top flight home matches (seven).
Milan
The hosts are currently on poor streak of results having registered just one victory in their last five games, but despite this poor run, Stefano Pioli dubbed the match the most important and said it presents many difficulties. He praised Torino’s manager Ivan Juric as he is always a stimulating and motivating opponent to face and his teams force the opposition to find solutions. Pioli was speaking in a pre-match press conference on Saturday:
There will be many duels, a lot of fighting on the second ball and clashes, that goes for every game, but this time the number will be greater aside from quality which is always decisive, winning duels and recovering possession being more determined will be one of the deciding characteristics especially in difficult games like tomorrow’s (Sunday).
We want to give consistency to our results that’s the key to winning leagues, with results preferably as long a streak of positive results as possible Napoli are doing extremely well but I believe this will be a balanced championship even at the top of the table with many teams vying for the title. Doing well tomorrow will be very important because we are doing well and we want to continue doing so.”
Pioli also said they want to raise the bar and that it’s normal to have as many strong players as possible. Competition helps keep level of training high in terms of quality, tempo and intensity as players know they need to be convincing for the manager to have to play them.
Expected XI (4-2-3-1): Tatarusanu; Kalulu, Tomori, Gabbia, Hernandez; Tonali, Pobega; Rebic, De Ketelaere, Leao; Origiud
Match Facts
- Milan are unbeaten in their last 17 Serie A away games (W12, D5), the longest open run in the big 5 European leagues: they last had such a longer run between September 1991 and October 1993 (38 under Fabio Capello).
- Milan have scored the most goals from open play in Serie A this season (12); on the other hand, only Torino (zero) have scored fewer set-piece goals (excluding penalties) so far than Milan (1).
- No side has attempted more shots from outside the box than AC Milan in Serie A this season (67), whilst Torino have had 48: however, the Granata are the only side yet to score a goal from outside the box so far.
Injuries
Ola Aina and Etrit Berisha on Torino’s side are players nursing injuries and the club has not given update about their availability, Aina however did play 90 minutes against Udinese.
Davide Calabria (thigh), Alessandro Florenzi (muscle), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (knee), Alexis Saelemaekers (knee) are players known to still be recovering from their respective injuries. It is unclear if goalkeeper Mike Maignan and defender Sergino Dest will be available tonight.
