AC Milan will take on Red Bull Salzburg in their final Champions League group stage game with a simple equation: avoid defeat to reach the knockout stages.
It will be far from a straightforward task for Milan given that Salzburg were unbeaten in the groups before their 2-1 home defeat to Chelsea, which allowed the Rossoneri to leapfrog them into second place by virtue of their 4-0 win away against Dinamo Zagreb.
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The game will likely be decided by some key duels across the pitch, starting with one involving Rafael Leao who will be out for revenge after missing two big chances in the game against Torino, when he subbed off at half-time. The Portuguese winger has five goal contributions in five UCL games so far this term (1G, 4A), but he faces 20-year-old Bosnian right-back Amar Dedić who kept tabs on him well in the first meeting.
Going from Milan’s biggest threat to Salzburg’s, we come to the battle between Noah Okafor and Simon Kjaer. The Swiss forward should start on the left of a front two and he has three Champions League goals thus far in 2022-23 – including one in Austria against the Diavolo. Meanwhile, with the Dane on the pitch Milan have conceded an average of 0.2 goals per game, and without him the average rises to 1.1.
Moving into midfield, there should be a fascinating contest between Ismael Bennacer and Luka Sucic. Bennacer has been playing the role of being a deeper-lying presence in the double pivot when paired with the more adventurous Sandro Tonali so his build-up and protection of the back four will be key against a talented 20-year-old Croatian playmaker who covers a lot of ground with intelligent movement and has actually been linked with Milan.
Moving back to Milan’s attack, Olivier Giroud scored his 20th goal in the UCL against Dinamo last week at the age of 36 years 25 days, making him the oldest player in competition history to reach 20 goals. The Frenchman is looking to score in consecutive Champions League games for the first time since December 2020 (while at Chelsea), but the 21-year-old 194cm tall Serbian defender Strahinja Pavlović will certainly try to be a physical match.
Finally, there will be another interesting midfield tussle involving Maurits Kjærgaard and Rade Krunic. The 19-year-old Dane is regarded as a top talent which his six goal contributions in the league certainly backs up, so Krunic will have the double task of limiting his involvement in build-up play while also facilitating Milan’s transitions and causing danger wherever possible.
