AC Milan are going to be handing out a fair few debuts on the opening day of the 2023/24 Serie A season away at Bologna.
Eight new players have come through the door at Casa Milan and at least three debuts are expected to be given out from the start by Stefano Pioli.
You can read our pre-match preview here, while below are the best stats ahead of the game…
➤ Milan haven’t lost in 26 of their last 27 matches against Bologna in Serie A (W19, D7); the only win for the Emilians in this period was back on 6th January 2016 (0-1 at the Meazza stadium with an Emanuele Giaccarini goal).
➤ Milan are unbeaten in each of their last 17 away matches against Bologna in Serie A (W12, D5), the last home win for the Emilians against the Rossoneri was back on 10th March 2002 (2-0 under Francesco Guidolin).
➤ Milan and Bologna will meet on matchday one for the fourth time in Serie A: there has been two wins for the Rossoneri and one for the Rossoblù so far. Their last game on MD1 was a 2-0 win for the Rossoneri at San Siro in 2020 with an Ibrahimovic brace.
➤ Milan have not drawn any of their last 11 Serie A season openers (W6, L5) – their last draw in the first league match was back on 9th September 2011 (2-2 against Lazio at San Siro).
➤ Bologna are unbeaten in 10 of their last 11 matches at Dall’Ara in their first Serie A match of the season (W5, D5) – their only defeat in the period came against SPAL (0-1 on 19th August 2018).
➤ Under Stefano Pioli, Milan have always won on MD1 in Serie A (W3); the last manager who achieved more consecutive wins in the Rossoneri’s first match of the season was Fabio Capello (five between 1991 and 1995).
➤ Bologna conceded the joint-fewest goals in home games in Serie A last season: 14, level with Inter.
➤ Only Lazio (12) and Inter (11) scored more goals than Bologna (10) in the first 15 minutes of play in Serie A in 2022-23, while Milan netted the most goals in the first 30 minutes of play (21).
➤ In 2022/23, Stefan Posch (six goals) became the first defender to score more than five goals in a single Serie A season for Bologna since Salvatore Fresi (eight in 2001-02).
➤ In his period at Villarreal (from 2018-19 to 2022-23), only Lionel Messi (475) and Vinícius Júnior (340) completed more dribbles than Samuel Chukwueze in LaLiga (308).
