Massimiliano Allegri has named his starting XI for AC Milan’s league opener against Cremonese, giving Luka Modric the nod from start.
Following the comfortable 2-0 win against Bari, Milan need to step it up even more against Cremonese tonight. While they are big favourites on paper, they still need to get the job done and this is something Allegri stressed during his presser as well.
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Furthermore, the opening game can always be a bit tricky, so it’s no surprise that Allegri has opted for familiar solutions and some experience with his starting eleven for the night…
AC Milan vs. Cremonese: Official starting XIs
Gazzetta dello Sport stated this morning that Modric was in pole position for a starting spot, ahead of Samuele Ricci, and this has now been confirmed. The Croatian veteran will be playing in the holding midfield role and tonight, his passing could be crucial to break down Cremonese.
There are no surprises apart from that, with Christian Pulisic and Santiago Gimenez teaming up in attack. That is mainly due to Rafael Leao’s calf injury, but the duo also combined well for one of the goals against Bari.
Official Milan XI (3-5-2): Maignan; Tomori, Gabbia, Pavlovic; Saelemaekers, Loftus-Cheek, Modric, Fofana, Estupinan; Gimenez, Pulisic.
Bench: Pittarella, Terracciano; Athekame, Bartesaghi, De Winter, Jiménez; Jashari, Musah, Ricci; Chukwueze.
Official Cremonese XI (3-5-2): Audero; Terracciano, Baschirotto, Bianchetti; Zerbin, Collocolo, Grassi, Vandeputte, Pezzella; Okereke, Bonazzoli.
Bench: Nava, Silvestri; Ceccherini, Folino, Floriani Mussolini, Sernicola; Bondo, Castagnetti, Lordkipanidze, Payero; De Luca, Sanabria.
❗ OFFICIAL: #ACMilan‘s starting XI for #MilanCremonese
🤔 Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/wYE9jg2eIq
— SempreMilan (@SempreMilanCom) August 23, 2025
Quite solid formation. Finger crossed for season opener match.
I hope Giminez scores two or more goals
What more could Ricci do to earn a start in this game?
Typical allegri, loves older players doesn’t trust youth
In matches where we are the protagonists Allegri may op for a more attack oriented set up. Modrić is an offensive player compared to Ricci but I agree with you I’d prefer Ricci.
Could it just be that the players on the field have done very well and Allegri believes they are the best combination to start this match? Ricci will play a lot, and will likely come off the bench for Modric.
Solid starting 11. Hoping for Gimenez’s brace and Pulišić to add another.
Still do not know what are you guys smoking about the formation.
It is a simple 433.
Whole weak you were analyzing 352 formation against Bari, but for 90 mins we played classic 433. The same it will be today.
That’s incorrect. Milan played a 352 even after Leao was subbed. When we don’t have the ball Milan fall back into a 532 shape.
Samuel, stop drinking during matches, you have no idea what’s happening
Good to see Modric starting… I want Gimenez to have a great game too – let’s give him a chance first before we start talking about shipping him out again – the dude barely knows his way around Milanelo 😅
4 minutes in and Gimenez is already looking for support from the stands, lmao.
Pavlovic is a major liability – Milan defense is pretty bad. Down 1:0 due to Gabbia and Pavlovic falling asleep on the job.
Unleash The Winter Man.
Well what do you know, Pavlovic’s on the scoresheet
Haha yeah but he still is liability on defense.
Your lover was subbed at half for playing like sh!t. Best scout in Brighton.
You must be confused – it’s your mom ‘s lover and you’re the result of that relationship.
Smh
As I said all along to you idiots, who kept arguing with me, this marceto has been a crime.
And this is the results.
Even if we will win in the end, it will not erase all the mistakes.
All the chickens are coming home to roost.
We buy players to wait until the current ones fail. By the time they start, we’ll be 12 points behind the league leaders lol
If we finished with draw that will be miracle.
Cremonese is for us now big cake.
Milan won’t win the scudetto with Pavlovic and Tomori in defense. They are both error prone. Gambia is not a Baresi or Nesta to handle that defense.
Sold our best defender thiaw with speed without studijying last season games.
We had our longest clean sheet we Foncesa paired Gabbia with Thisw.
Sacking foncesa and replacing with Concecao was a mistakeas we are starting from square 1 again but with foncesa, we could have developed a strong partnership in Gabbia and Thiaw that was truncated by Concecao.
Gabbia and Thiaw were good together.
Thiaw our best cb
How many turnovers and awful shots does Fofana have to commit before he’s subbed off.
Why in the world is fofana and cheek still playing? They both suck. 0 impact on the game.
Removing Estupinan for Jimenez was a terrible sub in my opinion. Cremonese has imposing players in the wings and Jimenez is too small for them. And as I was typing, the goal just came from his side.. Smh
Agree
Milan is a club full of crap and bullshit managers and players! The only thing in his club is to make money….enjoy the awful show called Allegriball
I can’t understand what Milan wants, what it aims for, what it hopes for from Useless-Cheek and from Fofana with his square legs…
Two mediocre untalented players.
To make money for the owners.
We stopped being a football club a few years ago.
I never want to see another article of how RLC is the second coming. Him and Fofana can ride the pine
All summer we played for
luxury money friendly matches with teams from England where we always had half the team made up of juniors and now we are surprised that the team does not function as it should and there are no playing relationships, no fluid playing style. Everything is chaotic and slow, a playing style without tactical schemes just a blind struggle. Let’s not be surprised if by the tenth round we will already be out of the fight for the scudetto. We will have great difficulties to take a place in the CL.
New coach, new players, same old Milan. To change, you have to get rid of the cancer on top – AKA Milan management.