AC Milan are in Serie A action tonight as they face off against Udinese at the Stadio Friuli, looking to make it four league wins in a row.
Milan have not won an away game against Udinese since 2020 while they have lost their last two games against them, and Stefano Pioli has not beaten Gabriele Cioffi as a head coach, so there are two runs to try and end.
The game tonight will be heavily influenced by some battles across the field, starting with the one on Milan’s left side between Rafael Leao and Joao Ferreira. The Portuguese winger is without a league goal since September, and the pressure is on for him to end that.
His opponent will be his 22-year-old compatriot Ferreira who is expected to play on the right of a back three, with Leao aiming to get closer to the area and in more dangerous areas.
At the other end, there will be two duels in Milan’s rearguard where Simon Kjaer and Matteo Gabbia will face the home forward duo of Roberto Pereyra and Lorenzo Lucca.
Pereyra has been involved in a goal in each of the last four league games against Milan (two assists, two goals), scoring the winner in the reverse fixture, while Lucca has six goals in 13 starts for Udinese so far. He revealed in the build-up that his idol is Zlatan and that he hopes to meet him.
Moving back to the Rossoneri’s attack, Olivier Giroud and Ruben Loftus-Cheek will each have a big role to play as they take on Nehuen Perez and Walace, the South American duo who have formed part of Udinese’s spine for years now.
Giroud got a goal and an assist against Roma in what was one of his better recent performances, while Loftus-Cheek has been playing the role of being the most advanced midfielder but also disrupting the build-up of opponents.
are we gonna get a pioli masterclass or a pioli masterclass ala 442? Udine draws home a lot
Hopefully we get an end result out of Leao today. A goal would be awesome (at 7mil a year). But if he runs around and assists and opens up spaces, I’m cool with that too.