AC Milan will make the short trip to face struggling Cremonese this evening hoping to make it back to back wins in Serie A.
Cremonese are back in the top flight of Italian football for the first time since 1996, and it would be fair to say that they have had some teething problems so far as they are winless in their opening 13 games with six draws, seven defeats, 11 goals scored and 24 goals conceded.
However, Milan found it hard against Spezia on Saturday who are also struggling so a good performance will be needed. You can read our pre-match preview here, while below are the best stats ahead of the game…
➤ Against Milan, Cremonese have suffered one of their three heaviest defeats in Serie A: a 7-1 defeat on 12th May 1996 (also a 9-0 against Roma and a 6-0 against Lazio) – the Grigiorossi have only won two of their 14 matches against the Rossoneri in the Italian top-flight (D2 L10).
➤ Cremonese have kept a clean sheet in three of their last five home games against Milan in Serie A, including the two most recent clashes in 1994 and 1996. Overall, only against Napoli (four) have the Grigiorossi kept more clean sheets than against the Rossoneri (three) in the competition.
➤ No team has drawn more matches than Cremonese in Serie A this season (six, along with Lecce) – the Grigiorossi could draw three games in a row in the Italian top-flight for the first time since January 1995, under Luigi Simoni.
➤ Cremonese have scored two goals and earned just two points in their opening six home league games this season; only five other teams in the Serie A history have both earned as few points and scored as few goals in the opening six home games of a campaign: Atalanta 1978-79, Ascoli 1986-87, Sassuolo and Benevento 2017-18 and lastly Sampdoria in the current term.
➤ Milan have remained unbeaten in 25 of their last 26 games against newly promoted sides in Serie A (W19 D6), winning 12 of their last 14 (D1 L1) – their only defeat in this period came against Spezia in February 2021.
➤ After a run of 17 consecutive away league games without defeat (W12, D5), Milan lost their most recent one (against Torino); the Rossoneri have not suffered two consecutive Serie A away defeats since October-November 2019, against Roma and Juventus, which were the first two under Stefano Pioli.
➤ Milan are the only team against which Daniel Ciofani has both scored and delivered an assist in Serie A: a goal and an assist for Frosinone in 2015-16 campaign. He has not been involved in a single goal in his last two matches against the Rossoneri in the competition (in 2018-19, also with the Ciociari).
➤ David Okereke has scored each of his last five Serie A goals away from home (including three in the current campaign), his last goal in a home match in the competition was on January 16th (in Venezia-Empoli).
➤ If he plays in this game, Sandro Tonali will make his 100th appearance for Milan in all competitions; he has provided three assists in his last four matches with the Rossoneri, as many as in his first 95 matches with the Milanese side.
➤ Since the start of 2022, Rafael Leão has been the only Milan player to be involved in 10+ goals away from home in Serie A: one goal and nine assists for him over this period.
