The five key battles that could win or lose the game for Milan against Torino

Tonight’s game against Torino is a must-win for AC Milan and as always, there are a couple of individual battles that, if won, could make life a whole lot easier for the Rossoneri. 

The defeat to Lazio certainly brought the Scudetto ambitions to a halt for Milan, now even leapfrogged by Napoli after their win last night. As such, they need to get back to winning ways against Torino tonight and reassert themselves in the standings.

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That said, they will have to do so without Rafael Leao, who has been ruled out due to injury (albeit nothing serious). Three changes should be made to the starting eleven and there will be a couple of interesting battles as a result.

AC Milan vs. Torino: Five key battles

Let’s start at the back from Milan’s point of view. There’s no doubt about the fact that Duvan Zapata will pose a real threat to the entire backline, but my gut feeling suggests that he will target Koni De Winter out of the three centre-backs.

With his partner in crime Giovanni Simeone being more mobile, it feels like the Colombian will stick to the centre of the penalty box. De Winter has also been more error-prone than his colleagues, which is another reason for targeting him. Zapata has scored in his last three games against Milan too…

On the left-hand side, Davide Bartesaghi will be back in the eleven and one of his main duties will be to restore the defensive security there. Torino right-back Marcus Pedersen loves to get forward when he has the chance, as we also saw when he played at Sassuolo.

The battle also goes two ways, as the Milan youngster will try to get forward too when there is a chance to put pressure on Torino. It will be very interesting to see who will win the battle, but I suspect that it could mean quiet a lot.

Moving on to the midfield, Adrien Rabiot is back in action after the suspension last time out and considering his importance in the reverse fixture, Torino will likely keep a close eye on him. His movement between the lines is great and that will be something for Nikola Vlasic to stop.

Vlasic is definitely an attacking-minded player, but he’s not afraid to get stuck in and he can also be considered a hard worker. In his No.10 role of sorts, as such, I expected him to drop down a little bit and help out with Rabiot’s movement.

The biggest battles for Milan, without a doubt, will be in attack and that puts a lot of pressure on Niclas Fullkrug. The forwards simply haven’t scored enough this year and it’s thus a great opportunity for the German to show his strength in the box.

He will most likely be up against Ardian Ismajli the most, as he’s the central defender in Torino’s back three. The Albanian has a lot of experience in Italian football and despite being slightly shorter than Milan’s striker, he usually handles aerial duels very well.

Finally, Christian Pulisic is clearly a lot better from a physical point of view, now just in need of a goal to break the drought. Tonight, I expect him to operate in the area just outside the penalty box, which means Torino’s midfielders will get involved.

Mateo Prati definitely has the defensive instincts to make life difficult for the American, even if it’s hard to stop him in good form. As Milan fans, therefore, we must hope that this game is the turning point for the No.11.