AC Milan are back in Serie A action on Saturday afternoon as they face off against Bologna at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara.
Milan will be buoyed by the 1-0 win against Napoli in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final clash on Wednesday night, but the hectic nature of the schedule means they have had very little time to enjoy it.
As a matter of fact, when including the first Napoli game, the Bologna trip and the return leg, the Rossoneri will have played three matches in less than 150 hours, with a top four spot and a place in the final four of the UCL at stake.
Game date: Saturday, April 15
Kick-off time: 15:00 (CEST)
Venue: Stadio Renato Dall’Ara
Referee: Davide Massa (VAR: Di Bello)
Team news
There is a bit of a dilemma facing Stefano Pioli heading into this game, and a perfect example of this is perhaps illustrated by the fact he did not even have time to do his usual pre-match press conference today because of the tight schedule.
The match against Bologna is crucial in the top four race, which in turn has a lot of prestige and of course prize money at stake. However, there is a real chance to make the Champions League semi-finals too, where Inter or Benfica would await.
The good news is that the squad are in good condition as everyone but Zlatan Ibrahimovic did the entirety of Friday’s final training session in view of the trip to Reggio-Emilia, and it seems as though mass rotation is what Pioli is currently leaning towards.
It has been confirmed that Simon Kjaer did not leave for the Reggio-Emilian capital with the squad. However, it is not because of an injury problem but rather a choice from Pioli, who will grant a rest to the 34-year-old.
According to what is being reported by Sky among other sources, the only player who should keep his spot in the line-up is Mike Maignan. In front of him should be a defence of Alessandro Florenzi, Malick Thiaw, Pierre Kalulu and Fode Ballo-Toure.
In midfield the double pivot is expected to be Aster Vranckx and Tommaso Pobega, with Charles De Ketelaere ahead of them as the central attacking midfielder.
Alexis Saelemaekers is down as the right winger, with Ante Rebic on the opposite flank and an opportunity for Divock Origi to lead the line. It is a heavy rotation in view of Tuesday’s return leg against Napoli, with Pioli clearly hoping to keep his key men fresh.
Probable Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Florenzi, Kalulu, Thiaw, Ballo-Toure; Vranckx, Pobega; Saelemaekers, De Ketelaere, Rebic; Origi.
The opponents
Nobody really knew what to make of Bologna heading into the 2022-23 season as they made some interesting signings like Joshua Zirkzee, Jhon Lucumi, Michel Aebischer and Lewis Ferguson, but none were established Serie A names.
The team started the season poorly and went winless in their opening five games, by which time Sinisa Mihajlovic stepped aside before three months later passing away following complications of leukaemia, aged just 53.
Bologna and Serie A went into mourning but the Rossoblu had to try and get their season back on track. One win in 10 left them just above the bottom three, but a run of three wins in four then rocketed them up to 11th.
Since then they have never dropped below 12th and have stabilised well, even claiming a couple of scalps along the way like beating Inter, Fiorentina and most recently Atalanta.
Thiago Motta is rightly earning plaudits for his work, and his side come into this game having won seven games out of their last 12 in the league, meaning they are now in the lofty position of 8th.
In terms of selection issues for Motta to contend with, Riccardo Orsolini is suspended so he will not be on the right wing, while Andrea Cambiaso, Marko Arnautovic and Roberto Sortiano are all out injured.
According to what is being reported by La Gazzetta dello Sport, Bologna should match Milan up system-wise with Posch, Soumaoro, Lucimi and Kyriakopoulos as the back four in front of Skorupski.
Schouten and Dominguez are down as the double pivot but Moro could get a start over the latter, while in attack Aebischer, Ferguson and Barrow should be the trident behind Sansone, who is 60-40 in percentage terms to start over Zirkzee.
Probable Bologna XI (4-2-3-1): Skorupski; Posch, Soumaoro, Lucimi, Kyriakopoulos; Schouten, Dominguez; Aebischer, Ferguson, Barrow; Sansone.
Head to head
Milan have played against Bologna 181 times in their 124-year history – the sixth-most of any Italian team – and they have 86 wins, 45 draws and 50 defeats in that time at a win rate of 47.5%.
The first ever meetings came all the way back in the 1921-22 season when the Rossoneri won 2-1 at home but were thumped 4-0 in the away leg, and fixtures have been regular ever since.
Milan ran out 2-0 winners in the reverse fixture earlier this season as Olivier Giroud and Rafael Leao got their names on the scoresheet late last August.
The last game at the Dall’Ara however was much more dramatic. Pioli’s side were 2-0 up at the break through goals from Leao and Calabria, but an Ibrahimovic own-goal and Barrow’s finish made it 2-2.
A red card before the hour mark for Soriano gave Milan an advantage but it took until the 84th minute to make it count as Bennacer scored, then Ibrahimovic made it 4-2 deep into added time.
Match facts…
➤ Bologna have not won any of their last 14 Serie A matches (D2 L12) against Milan; only against Juventus (D4 L17) do the Rossoblù currently have a longer winless streak in the competition.
➤ Milan are unbeaten in their last 16 away matches (W12 D4) against Bologna in Serie A; only against SPAL (19) do the Rossoneri have a longer current streak of away games without defeat.
➤ Bologna have won their last two Serie A games without conceding; they last won three in a row without conceding in February 1973 in the topflight.
➤ Bologna have not conceded a goal in their last three Serie A home games – last going longer in January 2000, when they reached eight consecutive home clean sheets.
➤ In their 23 games under Thiago Motta, Bologna have maintained an average of 1.6 points per game, while in the previous six beforehand this season the average was just one point per match.
➤ Since the beginning of February, Bologna have gained 17 points in Serie A, thanks to five wins and two draws (L2): in the period, only Napoli, Juventus (both 21) and Lazio (20) have gained more.
➤ In their last league match, Milan failed to score against Empoli; the Rossoneri have not gone two games in a row without scoring in Serie A since April 2022 (with one of the two against Bologna).
➤ Milan won 4-0 against Napoli in their last away league match, after two consecutive away defeats; the Rossoneri haven’t achieved at least two wins in a row away from home since October 2022 (three in that case).
➤ Musa Barrow has been involved in the most goals in April 2023 in Serie A (four: one goal and three assists); the Gambian striker could take part in a goal in at least three matches in a row in the competition for the first time since October 2021 (four in that case).
➤ In Europe’s top five leagues, Rafael Leão is one of only five players born after 1999 with more than 20 goals and more than 10 assists in the last two seasons; the others are Saka, Haaland,
Vinícius Júnior and Diaby.
Ones to watch
The game against the Rossoblu provides De Ketelaere with another opportunity to get the ball rolling against the team that were the opponents when he got an assist for Rafael Leao earlier in the season, which remains his only goal contribution. However, other misfiring forwards like Rebic and Origi are running out of time to show their worth.
It will be interesting to see how Thiaw and Kalulu look as a pairing, and then the likes of Ballo-Toure, Vranckx and Pobega could be looking at their last few chances to impress before a summer sale becomes nailed on.
With Orsolini (8 goals and 3 assists) and Arnautovic (8 goals) out injured, Bologna do not have their main attacking threat. Posch will have to step up at right-back given he has 5 goals this season, while Barrow will look to add to his 8 goal contributions (3 goals, 5 assists).
Where the game could be won and lost is in the midfield, where Schouten and Dominguez – both of whom have been tipped for moves away to bigger clubs – could well have the edge over an unprecedented Pobega-Vranckx pairing.
Prediction
We hope to be wrong, but this really does feel like a game that Pioli is sacrificing in order to give absolutely everything in Naples on Tuesday night.
The mass rotation will only serve as added motivation for Bologna who have been great in 2023 anyway, and it feels as though this could be another frustrating night like the Fiorentina and Udinese games.
Bologna 2-0 AC Milan
Welp I guess Pioli is ok with the Europa League.
Yep. Looks like it’s all in for the CL this season. Shocking considering how establishing a solid baseline of CL qualification year in year out doesn’t feel established. We could easily end up taking two steps back after having taken a step forward least season.
I want to believe that somehow all these rotations will create something spectacular and will click. Realistically we will concede 1 or 2 goals and shoot a total of 1 or 2 attempts all game. If Origi is on the pitch we do nothing
Origi is the one that worries me the most. He is just bad. I would have preferd CDK as a striker and Adli as AM, or Rebic as a striker and Adli on the left. Any way it would be fun to see the subs playing. And we stll have 8 games for top 4, so even if we lost its not the end.
What choices do we have? We have to rotate regardless.
Who knows, by playing all the Belgians together, they’ll have a better chemistry between themselves.
CDK as CF. Bakayoko in double pivot with Vrankx. Push Pobega up to play CAM. Origi must not play another minute for AC Milan.
alexis will deliver, he is on fire
What bothers me the most is the wholesale changes in one shot. Surely some of our starters will come on in the second half, particularly if the teams are level or if we’re down by one goal. Since it seems likely some will come on anyway, why not start a few regulars and sub them off at the half for some of the others? That way there is always a mix of regulars and subs. Why start ALL the bench players? It invites a catastrophic first 45 minutes where the game is lost by half time.
This is my exact thoughts
I hope this is a joke, otherwise we can say goodbye to the CL next season, which we cannot afford. Just because we have the Napoli match Tuesday we shouldn’t field a garbage team in Bologna that will never score and probably concede 2-3 goals. We may get to the CL final this year but we will not win it against City/Real, so that will not get us into the competition next season, only top 4 in Serie A will.