After the drama of deadline day, AC Milan will return to action on the field tonight, taking on Bologna away from home.
Milan come into the game at the Stadio Renato dall’Ara under pressure to win after Inter, Napoli and Juventus all did over the weekend. Massimiliano Allegri’s side are battling another injury bug, and have drawn three of six games in 2026 so far.
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Bologna vs. Milan: Predicted starting XIs
The bad news concerns Alexis Saelemaekers and Christian Pulisic. Both have been ruled out of making the trip with injuries that have been bugging them in the recent period. Santiago Gimenez will also be out as he continues to recover from surgery, while Rafael Leao is only fit enough for the bench.
As a result, La Gazzetta dello Sport report that Allegri will use the so far unseen front two of Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Christopher Nkunku, with the former playing just behind the latter. Zachary Athekame comes in on the right side for Saelemaekers too, as per the paper.
Davide Bartesaghi will be the left wing-back, with Adrien Rabiot, Luka Modric and Youssouf Fofana the midfield trio ahead of Koni De Winter, Matteo Gabbia and Strahinja Pavlovic in defence. Mike Maignan – fresh off a renewal until 2031 – remains between the posts.
Predicted Milan XI (3-5-1-1): Maignan; De Winter, Gabbia, Pavlovic; Athekame, Fofana, Modric, Rabiot, Bartesaghi; Loftus-Cheek; Nkunku.
Predicted Milan bench: Terracciano, Torriani; Odogu, Tomori, Estupinan; Ricci, Jashari; Leao, Füllkrug.
Predicted Bologna XI (4-3-3): Ravaglia; Zortea, Vitik, Heggem, Miranda; Ferguson, Freuler, Pobega; Orsolini, Castro, Rowe.
Predicted Bologna bench: Pessina, Franceschelli, Casale, Helland, Sohm, Lykogiannis, Joao Mario,
Bernardeschi, Moro, Cambiaghi, Dallinga, Dominguez.
ℹ️ The predicted XIs for #BolognaMilan, according to @Gazzetta_it.
🤔 Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/vIqZ44OxvQ
— SempreMilan (@SempreMilanCom) February 3, 2026
Oliver Fischer, read your article again,and fix the bugs!
Fofana + RLC = 10 goals each at the end of the season, so smart move by Allegri to put them to play together as they have so far scored only 2 out of 20 and there’s only 16 games left until season-end.
Jokes aside, it seems it will be another tough to watch game, but let’s see. If the lineup is like this, we have 4 central midfielders on the ground and Ricci/Jashari will stay on the bench yet again.
Waste of resources regarding Ricci and Jashari.
I’m thinking of watching the game or whipping myself. Nkunku, Loftus, Fofana…
This is going to require Rabiot to have a blinder. No idea where goals are going to come from here.
Füllkrug mustn’t be up to speed in training yet. We are going to play so deep tonight we need a target man
Ta bort RLC och prova Modric där och Jashari på Modrics plats
At least the defense is optimal. No Tomori is a bless
Tomori has been good this season? Why attack him ?
Use 442 formation Rabiot Modrich Ricci Fofana behind Nkunku, Fullkrug.
Milan is such a puzzle. doing so good on results and position but looking at the team, it looks so not up to standard.
imagine we cannot even ask our junior team for a striker that can assist. such a huge gap between our futuro n 1st team.
with a season like this, we should have recalled Camarda to stand in abit.
it would be excellent.
I don’t know what is wrong with Milan we have young player at Milan futuo make Allegri invite them to first team if we short in squad because we’re short in Attacking
I don’t know what is wrong with Milan we have young player at Milan futuo make Allegri invite them to first team if we short in squad because we’re short in Attacking
Pulisic’s fragility is what drove him out of Chelsea. Thought that was all in the past…
So why did we get Fullkrug exactly? Not even going to start him when Pulisic and Leao are out…
Allegri getting closer to his dream of zero attacking players in the starting XI.
If Rabiot isn’t scoring this game, no one at Milan will.
There must be something very wrong with training culture. We always have several top players injured. Fix it and lots of money are being saved.