AC Milan will take on Salernitana away from home this evening and there are quite a few key battles that could decide the clash. Ismael Bennacer is back, for example, and will play an important role in the Rossoneri’s midfield.
Milan clinched all three points against Monza, bouncing back from the Atalanta defeat, and will be hoping to grab another win tonight. Salernitana are last in the standings and anything other than a win for the Rossoneri would be poor.
The key battles
Simon Kjaer will make his second consecutive start tonight, after doing well against Monza, and he will be up against Salernitana’s star Boulaye Dia. While the hype of last season died out a bit, mainly due to transfer rumours in the summer, the Senegalese international still has four goals to his name. Pace-wise, it will be an interesting battle.
Another Salernitana attacker that Milan will have to contain in Antonio Candreva, who can’t seem to stop scoring wondergoals from a distance. Ismael Bennacer, making his first start since the comeback, will thus need to be all over the Italian if he decides to cut inside.
Further up the pitch, with Salernitana having a relatively strong defence on the right, we believe Christian Pulisic could be more of a ‘decisive’ player tonight on the home side’s left side. He will be up against Domagoj Bradaric and after nearly scoring against Monza, the American will be keen on bagging one tonight.
In the centre of the pitch, Ruben Loftus Cheek will surely be up against Salernitana’s holding midfielder Emil Bohinen quite a lot. This is a player that the Rossoneri will want to close down, also because they are fierce when winning the ball high up the pitch. Then again, Bohinen will also be keen on stopping the Englishman.
Finally, the strong centre-forward Olivier Giroud will be up against a strong centre-back, Federico Fazio. It’s always an interesting battle and the aerial duels will likely be important tonight.
