AC Milan are back in Serie A action against Lecce this afternoon at the Stadio Via del Mare, and they are hoping to build on the midweek Champions League victory.
Milan faced Paris Saint-Germain as a team in crisis according to some and emerged with a new-found belief. Now the challenge is to translate that into domestic action and get the Scudetto bid back on track before the international break.
There will be a number of interesting battles across the field, starting with the one between Ylber Ramadani and Ruben Loftus-Cheek. Milan played a 4-2-3-1 system against PSG where the Englishman was further forward than Yunus Musah and Tijjani Reijnders, and it brought a lot of success.
Ramadani will operate at the base of a trio for Lecce and will have the task of stopping Loftus-Cheek’s driving runs and propensity to make late surges into the box to get on the end of crosses, but he has been one of the most impressive performers under D’Aversa so far.
Moving to the attack, Federico Baschirotto will aim to stop an in-form Olivier Giroud, who netted the winner on Tuesday night and scored a brace at the Maradona against Napoli in his last away appearances.
Baschirotto is by now a veteran of Italian football at the age of 27 and is a no-nonsense centre-half, while he can also be a goal threat from set pieces as seen in last season’s 2-2 draw between Lecce and Milan in which he bagged the second goal.
Earlier this year the Rossoneri were linked with a move for Antonino Gallo for the position of deputy left-back, and while we do not know if he is still on the club’s radar he will certainly look to perform well against Milan’s most expensive summer signing, Samuel Chukwueze.
Christian Pulisic’s injury has handed a chance to the Nigeria international who will make just his third league start after his €28m move from Villarreal. He is yet to register a goal or assist and is just back from three weeks out with a muscle injury.
Nikola Krstovic has been probable Lecce’s most impressive performers so far this season – so much so that he is apparently attracting the interest of Milan – and therefore it could be an audition of sorts for him this afternoon.
He has four goals out of the 11 they have scored in 2023-24 so far, and it will likely by Malick Thiaw who will enter into a physical duel with him, aiming to build on a great performance against Kylian Mbappe and co. a few days ago.
We end with a midfield tussle between Mohamed Kaba and Tijjani Reijnders. Kaba joined Lecce in the summer from Valenciennes and has established a spot as the starter on the right of the midfield three, showing great energy and dynamism.
Reijnders meanwhile was one of Milan’s several €20m additions and he is yet to score a goal. While he is down to play in the double pivot today, he often goes adventuring forward so will have to balance both phases well to assist Rade Krunic.
