Milan-Cagliari XIs 2025
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Official: AC Milan vs. Cagliari starting XIs – Calabria and Leao back from start

Sergio Conceicao has announced the starting XI for his first Serie A game in charge of AC Milan. Cagliari are the opponents and compared to the Inter clash, the manager has made two changes. 

There was always going to be at least one change for this game, given Emerson Royal’s suspension, and Conceicao has opted for Davide Calabria for that role. Furthermore, Rafael Leao is back from suspension as he’s now deemed to be 100% condition-wise.

Fikayo Tomori is getting the chance once again, making his third consecutive start, and some fans are a little bit perplexed given how well Matteo Gabbia has played this season. Perhaps the Englishman can prove the manager right this evening.

It should be noted that Maignan will wear the captain’s armband tonight, and not Calabria. The latter is the vice-captain according to the match documents. As for Cagliari, it’s pretty much as expected.

The starting XIs

Official Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Calabria, Tomori, Thiaw, Theo; Fofana, Musah; Pulisic, Reijnders, Leao; Morata.

Bench: Sportiello, Torriani; Bartesaghi, Gabbia, Jiménez, Pavlović, Terracciano; Bennacer, Zeroli; Abraham, Camarda, Omoregbe.

Official Cagliari XI (4-4-1-1): Caprile; Zappa, Palomino, Luperto, Obert; Zortea, Adopo, Makombou, Felici; Viola; Piccoli.

Bench: Iliev, Sherri; Augello, Azzi, Wieteska; Deiola, Gaetano, Marin, Prati; Lapadula, Pavoletti.

Tags AC Milan Cagliari

78 Comments

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          3. dejan10 I’m with you there BUT as long as we only are half way through the season everyone above us can snuff it for what I care.

  3. I can’t remember being this excited to watch Milan in over a decade! I don’t want to get too ahead of myself but I think Conceicao is exactly what this team needed in terms of leadership and discipline. Definitely don’t want to jinx anything but I am excited about things to come!

    Reply

  4. Poor Gabbia.
    He gets cast off by Pioli, comes back and all but single handedly holds the defense together.

    He gets ignored by Fonseca until needs must, he comes back wins the derby and fixes a poor defense again!

    Now Conceicao arrives and he is back on the bench?
    He is our best defender, he is homegrown, a bandiera and future captain. Why does he get no respect?

    I understand the coach wants to evaluate all the defenders, especially Tomori given transfer speculation. So why not play Tomori – Gabbia tonight?

    Reply

    1. Gabbi have illness few days back. He’s not match fit. Conceicao just did not throw him to the bench. It’s the first very game in seria we wil
      See more of everyone with the new coach

      Reply

    2. Of course it’s hard for most of you to give Fonseca some credit for the work he did with these boys. He found a problem with Theo and Leao and tried to fix it and nobody was patient with him. He was bold enough to try different back 2 until he saw how solid Gabbia Thaw combo was and started using it consistently. But to you, “Fonseca ignored Gabbia”. lol. He was actually using him.
      While I don’t have a problem with Conceição, I think he is a fine coach, but y’all are sounding like he didn’t inherit something good. Fonseca took us to the semi final of the Italian cup he came in and won. Fonseca has on the brink of qualifying for the second round of champions league and he inherited that too. Yes, we could be better in serie A but injuries played a huge role in that too. I’ll always give him his flowers and hope for Conceição to succeed.
      To your question about why isn’t he playing Tomori-Gabbia, do you see how tall Cagliari players are ? Thiaw’s height will be useful in this game. If y’all can stop making calls based on emotions then maybe yall can see and think clearly

      Reply

        1. There goes another person writing comment with emotions. lol. Btw He didn’t finish in 8th cos he didn’t coach the team till the end of the season so hold your end of season review.

          Reply

          1. No emotion, just facts. He got fired bc he’s finished his tenure in 8th place like a bum and they played awful.

            The only emotion here is love from you because you want to be Fonsecas boyfriend

      2. Where did I say Fonseca Ignored Gabbia?
        Very reactionary response and completely out of context

        If height is the issue then Thiaw Gabbia would be the solution no?

        Reply

          1. My word what children.
            My post is not critical of Fonseca firstly.

            I wrote “He gets ignored by Fonseca until needs must he comes back wins the derby and fixes a poor defense again!”

            He has misquoted with ““Fonseca ignored Gabbia”” and all context removed

          1. Let me educate you, when one uses quotations the wording cannot be changed as it is a quote.
            Im sorry if that is hard to understand

      4. Did Fonceca bribe Roma because we still have to play them in quarter finals of the Italian Cup? Supercup is played by 4 teams but yeah kudos to Fonceca.

        And bold enough, that has nothing to do with baldness, rather a complete inability to understand and handle his (top)players.

        Reply

  7. LOL. Tomori. Loose pass and then totally out of position to defend the cross that the Cagliari player thankfully ate up. Typical. 🙄🙄🙄

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  11. That tackle from Calabria was just perfection.
    It’s refreshing having the ball on our right side and not being constantly scared of another emerson blunder

    Reply

  12. Come on guys if a player is closing on your teammate just yell man on or something 🤦‍♂️

    Also we have to start moving the ball as fast as we did in the first 10 minutes or so and make more runs in the final third. That 6-4-0 formation is hard to break down

    Reply

    1. Third coach, same problems breaking down a lowblocking team parking the bus. This is why priority no. 1 on the transfer market, either now or in the summer, should be a physical target man. We need someone who can own the box in these kinds of games.

      Reply

  13. Good attitude by the team but quite sloppy and toothless in attack.
    Mike and Calabria saved our blushes.

    Hopefully we can get the job done.
    Once again a proper centre forward is what’s missing

    Reply

  14. Of course noone was stellar, but the overall performance was rather good. I cannot think of a player underperforming (except Morata perhaps but understandable because of the 4-6-0 of Cagliari)

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      1. Sure but still Fofana should definitely have done better but these things happens but he has also thrown away our possession on a couple of other occasions in the match.

        Reply

  31. I felt it was very impressing first 20 minutes of the match but without any goals scored. In the end a bs result that could have tipped either way.

    Reply

  32. It would take a miracle to make top 4 with the likes of morata and abraham upfront.

    How can you not put that in the net?

    If it’s not a tap-in, pk, not sure abraham can score from any play

    Reply

      1. Seriously it hurts a lot watching these guys upfront. Morata falls at every given chance and whines like a baby. Many would praise him for running half field to win a ball back which is good but that’s not his primary job. Put the back in the net that’s what we need.

        For abraham, I still can’t fathom why we got him. Both combined ain’t up to slow poke Giroud. To be frank, keeping Giroud would have been better than getting these two😭

        Reply

  35. Acmilan should please bring back our Gabbia to partner with thiaw so another thing Acmilan must correct is let’s bring Reijnder back to double pivot then use pulisic as attacking midfielder then play omoregbe as left wing then leao play right wing Acmilan needs to sign players is our major concern like Aklioche as attacking midfielder then trincao as left wing then rashford as leao deputy with Warren Bondo as defensive midfielder

    Reply

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