AC Milan’s season kicks off with the game against Torino tonight, scheduled for 20:45 CEST, and it should be an exciting one underneath the floodlights at San Siro. As the stats confirm, the Rossoneri are the clear favourites to win.
Indeed, Milan have been very successful at home against Il Toro and will be looking to extend that run this evening. It’s Paulo Fonseca’s first game in charge and there will also be some interesting player battles between the teams.
Our pre-match preview has the latest team news and some opposition insight, while below are the key stated ahead of the game.
Key stats and facts
➤ Torino won their last match against Milan in Serie A (3-1 in May); in the last 38 years only once have the Granata obtained consecutive wins against the Rossoneri in the top-flight: between April and September 2019.
➤ Milan are unbeaten in 28 home games against Torino in Serie A (W20 D8) and overall, only against Hellas Verona (32) and Lazio (29) have the Rossoneri recorded a longer unbeaten streak at home in the competition; the last away win for the Granata against the Rossoneri in Serie A was in March 1985 (1-0 with a goal from Walter Schachner with Luigi Radice as coach).
➤ Milan have won each of their last four matches played on the first Serie A matchday, while the last time they recorded a longer winning streak in the first round of the championship was between 1987 and 1996 (10).
➤ After last season’s 0-0 draw against Cagliari, Torino could draw on the opening day of consecutive Serie A seasons for the first time since 2006-07 and 2007-08.
➤ Torino and Milan will face each other on the first day of the championship for the third time in Serie A, with one win each so far, in both cases for the home team: 2-1 for the Granata in September 1939 and 3-2 for the Rossoneri in August 2016.
➤ Milan ended last season with just one win in their last nine games in all competitions (D4 L4): 5-1 against Cagliari in May, after having recorded a run of seven consecutive wins.
➤ Paulo Fonseca will be the first Portuguese coach in AC Milan’s history in Serie A. Fonseca’s Lille were the Ligue 1 club that kept the most clean sheets in 2023-24 (22) as well as scoring the second-most goals (86) behind only PSG (124) in all competitions.
➤ Torino kept a clean sheet in 18 games in Serie A last season, fewer than only Inter (21); furthermore, only in 1976-77 (19 with Luigi Radice as coach) have the Granata record more clean sheets in a single Serie A season.
➤ Alvaro Morata has scored five goals in his last seven games of the season on his debut in the big five European leagues, after failing to score in his first seven of those. The Spanish striker is coming off his best scoring season in Europe’s big five leagues across all competitions: 21 goals in 48 games for Atletico Madrid in 2023-24.
➤ Duvan Zapata has scored six goals against Milan in Serie A. Since the 2015-16 season, the Colombian’s first goal against the Rossoneri — only Ciro Immobile (7) has scored more goals against the Rossoneri in the top-flight. Overall, the Torino striker has contributed to nine goals against Milan (3 assists also), fewer than only Paulo Dybala in this time in the competition (10).