AC Milan will be looking to make it back to back wins in Serie A when they make the trip to face a struggling Cremonese side at the Stadio Giovanni Zini on Tuesday night.
Milan made lives more difficult for themselves than they needed to against Spezia at San Siro on Saturday night as it took a last gasp winner from Olivier Giroud to overcome a side that were yet to register a single point away from home, after Daniel Maldini had cancelled out Theo Hernandez’s opener to make it 1-1.
Even though Cremonese are struggling Stefano Pioli urged his side not to take them lightly, especially given the selection issues to contend with.
Game date: Tuesday, 8 November
Kick-off time: 20:45 (CET)
Venue: Stadio Giovanni Zini
Referee: Rapuano (VAR: Di Paolo)
Team news
The main team news from the Rossoneri’s camp is that Olivier Giroud and Theo Hernandez are both out due to suspension, with the former having received a second yellow for taking his shirt off in the celebration after netting the winner against Spezia and the latter having accumulated too many cards.
It is at full-back where Milan face the biggest injury crisis therefore given Alessandro Florenzi and club captain Davide Calabria are absentees as they will be out until after the break for the World Cup and Sergino Dest is also out, so Pierre Kalulu should be right-back again.
Meanwhile Theo is suspended meaning Fode Ballo-Toure is likely to get the nod at left-back, and the other absentees include goalkeeper Mike Maignan and winger Alexis Saelemaekers.
While waiting for definitive news regarding the rest of the starting line-up, the current indications are that Ciprian Tatarusanu should start in goal with Kalulu right-back, Simon Kjaer and Fikayo Tomori at centre-back and Ballo-Toure at left-back.
Sandro Tonali and Ismael Bennacer are the obvious double pivot but there could be space for either Tommaso Pobega or Rade Krunic in the pivot again if Pioli decided to rotate.
In attack it seems like Junior Messias is favoured to start on the right with a battle between Charles De Ketelaere and Brahim Diaz for the playmaker role and Rafael Leao on the left behind Divock Origi.
Probable Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Tatarusanu; Kalulu, Kjaer, Tomori, Ballo-Toure; Tonali, Bennacer; Messias, De Ketelaere/Diaz, Leao; Origi.
The opponents
Cremonese are back in the top flight of Italian football for the first time since 1996, and it would be fair to say that they have had some teething problems so far as they are winless in their opening 13 games with six draws, seven defeats, 11 goals scored and 24 goals conceded.
The Lombardian team made a splash in the summer by spending on striker Cyriel Dessers who signed from Genk, forward Felix Afena-Gyan who arrived from Roma, midfielder Charles Pickel from Famalicao, centre-back Emanuel Aiwu from Rapid Wien, full-back Giacomo Quagliati from Heracles and centre-back Luka Lochoshvili from Wolfsberger AC.
However, things started difficultly with four defeats on the spin to start the Serie A season and though it looked like draws against Sassuolo and Atalanta were a good building block, they have not kicked on and are still winless with the most recent result being a 2-2 draw away at Salernitana.
Head coach Massimiliano Alvini has some selection issues to deal with as Matteo Bianchetti was not part of the game at the weekend Salernitana having come off injured against Udinese on October 30, so he will miss out.
The aforementioned summer signing Dessers is also out, while Romanian duo of Vlad Chiriches and Ionut Radu – the latter having made the error for Inter against Bologna that essentially gifted Milan the title – will also be out.
There are a couple of ex-Rossoneri players worth looking out for such as former loan midfielder Soualiho Meite and Primavera striker Frank Tsadjout.
Cremonese possible starting lineup:
Carnesecchi; Aiwu, Hendry, Lochoshvili; Sernicola, Quagliata, Meite, Pickel; Buonaiuto, Tsadjout, Okereke.
Head to head
Milan have faced off against Cremonese 27 times in their 123-year history across all competitions, with 17 of those ending in victory, plus four draws and six defeats, and a positive goal difference of 18.
The first meeting stretches back to the old Prima Divisione in 1922-23 when Milan did the double, beating their Lombardy neighbours 2-1 and 1-0. The most recent meetings were in the 1995-96 Serie A season when the Diavolo drew 0-0 away but routed the Cremona-based side at home.
The goal scorers in the reverse fixture in May 1996 were De Agostini (own-goal), Weah, Giandebiaggi, Panucci, Di Canio (x2) and Boban as Fabio Capello’s men ran out 7-1 winners to capture their 15th Scudetto.
Match facts…
➤ Against Milan, Cremonese have suffered one of their three heaviest defeats in Serie A: a 7-1 defeat on 12th May 1996 (also a 9-0 against Roma and a 6-0 against Lazio) – the Grigiorossi have only won two of their 14 matches against the Rossoneri in the Italian top-flight (D2 L10).
➤ Cremonese have kept a clean sheet in three of their last five home games against Milan in Serie A, including the two most recent clashes in 1994 and 1996. Overall, only against Napoli (four) have the Grigiorossi kept more clean sheets than against the Rossoneri (three) in the competition.
➤ No team has drawn more matches than Cremonese in Serie A this season (six, along Lecce) – the Grigiorossi could draw three games in a row in the Italian top-flight for the first time since January 1995, under Luigi Simoni.
➤ Cremonese have scored two goals and earned just two points in their opening six home league games this season; only five other teams in the Serie A history have both earned as few points and scored as few goals in the opening six home games of a campaign: Atalanta 1978-79, Ascoli 1986-87, Sassuolo and Benevento 2017-18 and lastly Sampdoria in the current term.
➤ Milan have remained unbeaten in 25 of their last 26 games against newly promoted sides in Serie A (W19 D6), winning 12 of their last 14 (D1 L1) – their only defeat in this period came against Spezia in February 2021.
➤ After a run of 17 consecutive away league games without defeat (W12, D5), Milan lost their most recent one (against Torino); the Rossoneri have not suffered two consecutive Serie A away defeats since October-November 2019, against Roma and Juventus, which were the first two under Stefano Pioli.
➤ Milan are the only team against which Daniel Ciofani has both scored and delivered an assist in Serie A: a goal and an assist for Frosinone in 2015-16 campaign. He has not been involved in a single goal in his last two matches against the Rossoneri in the competition (in 2018-19, also with the Ciociari).
➤ David Okereke has scored each of his last five Serie A goals away from home (including three in the current campaign), his last goal in a home match in the competition was on January 16th (in Venezia-Empoli).
➤ If he plays in this game, Sandro Tonali will make his 100th appearance for Milan in all competitions; he has provided three assists in his last four matches with the Rossoneri, as many as in his first 95 matches with the Milanese side.
➤ Since the start of 2022, Rafael Leão has been the only Milan player to be involved in 10+ goals away from home in Serie A: one goal and nine assists for him over this period.
Ones to watch
With fellow Nigerian Dessers out injured, there is no doubting that the main threat for the home side will be David Okereke who has three goals so far and has started 12 of their 13 games. Daniel Ciofani is next on the scoring charts having netted twice, but Cremonese have only have seven different scorers thus far.
The 24-year-old Georgia international Luka Lochoshvili has been a pleasant surprise after his arrival in the summer, having racked up 11 appearances thus making him a mainstay in the line-up now.
For the Rossoneri it will be time for Divock Origi and Fode Ballo-Toure to show why fans should have faith in the depth available. The Belgian striker has not exactly followed up his first goal against Monza with dazzling performances, while the Senegalese left-back still has doubts surrounding his consistency levels.
There is also the remarkable stat that Milan have only conceded once this season across all competitions with Simon Kjaer on the field, so if he starts – as he is tipped to – then the first target will of course be a clean sheet.
Prediction
Cremonese are having a torrid time on their return to the top flight and a comfortable win is needed by Milan to keep up the momentum heading into the break and also to keep pace with Napoli.
Cremonese 1-3 AC Milan
