AC Milan will take on Torino for their season opener at 20:45 CEST this evening and Paulo Fonseca has named his starting XI for the game. It’s the manager’s first official game in charge of the Rossoneri and he will be looking to start with a win.
In the last few days, there had been many different reports regarding the starting, above all on the right flank as some had Alexis Saelemaekers while others had Samuel Chukwueze. As it turns out, they are both starting with the Belgian at left-back.
It’s a very surprising, not to mention bold, decision by Fonseca and it remains to be seen how Saelemaekers will do in that role. Davide Calabria is the captain of the team and Rafael Leao is the vice-captain.
Official Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Calabria, Tomori, Thiaw, Theo Hernandez; Bennacer, Loftus-Cheek; Saelemaekers, Pulisic, Leao, Jovic.
Bench: Raveyre, Torriani, Morata, Reijnders, Okafor, Theo Hernandez, Pavlovic, Terracciano, Gabbia, Musah.
Official Torino XI (3-5-2): Milinkovic-Savic; Vojvoda, Coco, Masina; Bellanova, Ricci, Linetty, Ilic, Lazaro; Sanabria, Zapata.
Bench: Paleari, Donnarumma, Karamoh, Sazonov, Adams, Dembele, Dellavalle, Horvath, Tameze, Ciammaglichella, Bianay, Njie.
Milan’s record against Torino at home is very impressive and anything other than a win tonight would be a huge disappointment. The pressure is thus on Fonseca and the boys to get it right, but they will have to unconditional support of the fans as help.