AC Milan will make the trip to the capital on Friday night to take on AS Roma at the Stadio Olimpico hoping to win their third straight match to begin the season.
Milan were victorious in their opening two games of the campaign, beating Bologna 2-0 on matchday one before triumphing 4-1 against Torino last weekend, and they face a Roma side who have made a comparatively rocky start.
Stefano Pioli spoke to the media on the eve of the clash,
Game date: Friday, September 2
Kick-off time: 20:45 (CEST)
Venue: Stadio Olimpico
Referee: Antonio Rapuano (VAR: Irrati)
Team news
Pioli can call upon a squad which is almost at full health barring the exception of Ismael Bennacer, who continues his recovery from knee surgery and will be our for a few more months yet.
Yunus Musah came back from suspension for the last match against Torino, and the new signing Marco Pellegrino was called-up for the game as well, so there is ample depth in each position across the field.
There was some worry after the victory on Saturday about Rafael Leao’s condition, as Pioli was forced to make a substitution after the nasty tackle that resulting in the second penalty, albeit one that was more due to bad timing than malice. However, the Portuguese winger is ok and trained fully with the team.
For the first two games of the season Pioli has stayed loyal to the starting line-up that played in each of the more high-profile preseason friendlies and reports suggest he will not veer away from it for the game against Roma either.
Therefore, Mike Maignan will keep his position between the sticks with Davide Calabria, Malick Thiaw, Fikayo Tomori and Theo Hernandez as the back four from right to left.
In midfield, Rade Krunic – who has been the subject of a bid from Lyon towards the end of the window – should start at the base of the trio with Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Tijjani Reijnders as the right and left box-to-box players respectively.
The attacking trident should remain composed of Christian Pulisic on the right wing, Rafael Leao on the other flank and Olivier Giroud as the centre-forward.
The likes of Pierre Kalulu, Yunus Musah, Yacine Adli, Samuel Chukwueze, Luka Romero and Noah Okafor are therefore able to be called upon during the game off the bench.
Probable Milan XI (4-3-3): Maignan; Calabria, Thiaw, Tomori, Theo Hernandez; Loftus-Cheek, Krunic, Reijnders; Pulisic, Giroud, Leao.
The opponents
It has been an interesting summer for Roma in terms of transfer business as they continue their build under Jose Mourinho that they hope will finish with consistent Champions League football again.
The notable outgoings were Roger Ibanez, Justin Kluivert, Cristian Volpato, Benjamin Tahirovic, Carles Perez, Bryan Reynolds and Nemanja Matic. Ibanez (€30m, to Al-Ahli) and Kluivert (€11.2m, to Bournemouth) brought in the most funds-wise.
The additions have been free transfer and loan heavy. Romelu Lukaku is the biggest name, joining from Chelsea on an initial loan, while ex-Milan target Renato Sanches arrived from PSG.
Leandro Paredes also made the switch from Paris but on a permanent deal, while Evan N’Dicka and Houssem Aouar joined on frees, with Rasmus Kristensen (loan, Leeds) and Sardar Azmoun (loan, Leverkusen) completing the incomings.
On the field it has been a tough start for the Giallorossi, as an Antonio Candreva brace had them fighting back for a point against Salernitana in round one while last time out they lost 2-1 to potential strugglers Hellas Verona.
We spoke to resident Roma fan Euan Burns to get some insight regarding their team news.
“Probably one of the hardest games to choose a team for given the bad start to the season, the injuries and the possible Lukaku involvement.
“Seems highly unlikely now that Dybala is going to be involved, certainly seems like he won’t start. Lukaku making the bench seems very possible, starting not so much given he’s not even been training with Chelsea, been by himself.
“Mourinho is back, one of his big decisions is whether he starts Azmoun or keeps Belotti. I’d expect it to be Belotti, but he could start both given it’ll be a 3-5-2.
“People want Rui Patricio’s head on a stick but no suggestion that he’s getting dropped. Aouar should come into the midfield given he was good against Salernitana and scored against Verona when he came on. Could be the only change beyond Dybala coming out from the Verona game.”
Predicted XI (3-5-2): Patricio; Mancini, Smalling, Llorente; Kristensen, Pellegrini, Cristante, Aouar, Zalewski; Belotti, El Shaarawy.
Head to head
Roma are the team that Milan have played the fourth-most of any club across all competitions. They have met them 195 times with 82 wins, 62 draws and 51 defeats, at a win rate of 42.1%.
The two sides shared the spoils in both games last season, and there was late drama in each game with injury-time equalisers spoiling the party for the respective home teams.
In January at San Siro goals from Kalulu and Tommaso Pobega had Milan in cruise control at 2-0, but Ibanez and Abraham scored inside the final few minutes to snatch a point from nowhere for Mourinho’s men.
Back at the Olimpico, it was Abraham who again struck late and thought he had earned all three points for his team, but with virtually the last chance of the game Alexis Saelemaekers – who joined Bologna earlier in the week – levelled it.
Match facts…
➤ Milan are unbeaten in 10 of their last 11 Serie A matches (W6 D4) against Roma – always scoring at least one goal – with their only defeat coming in October 2019 (2-1).
➤ Roma are unbeaten in eight (W4, D4) of their last 11 home league games against AC Milan; however they have lost two of their most recent three (D1) in Serie A; in Serie A, no team have won more away matches than the Rossoneri against the Giallorossi in the competition (30).
➤ Milan are one of the three teams (along with Napoli and Venezia) against which José Mourinho’s Roma have never won in Serie A (D2 L2), while only against Lazio and Inter (three) have they lost more times.
➤ Roma have picked up one point in their first two league games (D1, L1); the last Serie A season they started without winning in their first three league matches was in 2011-12 (D2 L1).
➤ Milan have won their first two league games and could win each of their first three Serie A matches for the third time in their last four Serie A editions, as many as in their previous 29.
➤ Roma have conceded the fewest shots in the Big-5 European leagues (8) this season; however, they’ve conceded from 50% of those efforts (4), the worst ratio.
➤ No team have conceded more goals from open play than Roma in Serie A this season (four, level with Frosinone). On the other hand, no side have scored more goals in open play than Milan (four, level with Fiorentina, Inter, Lecce and Napoli).
➤ Stefano Pioli (298) is close to earning 300 points as Milan manager in Serie A: with a win he could become the second manager to reach this milestone for the Rossoneri in the era of three points for win, after Carlo Ancelotti (557).
➤ Roma striker Andrea Belotti has scored four goals in his last six home appearances against Milan in Serie A (last goal in September 2019); furthermore, after his brace on MD1 against Salernitana, he could find the net in back-to-back home games in the competition for the first time since December 2020.
➤ Olivier Giroud has scored three goals in Serie A this season; the last Milan player to find the net more times in the first three league matches of a season for the Rossoneri was Andriy Shevchenko in 2001-02 (four).
➤ He could score in six appearances in a row in the big five European leagues for the second time in his career, doing so between February and April 2015 for Arsenal.
Ones to watch
For Milan, there is no doubting that Giroud and Pulisic – who have four goals combined so far – will be looking to continue their red-hot start to the season, but Leao will also be looking to get in on the act.
In midfield Reijnders and Loftus-Cheek have emerged as the early metronomes of the side so they play an important role, while Theo will get forward of course and the Tomori-Thiaw pairing will be given their toughest test of the season yet.
If Dybala does make it back for the game, he is undoubtedly Roma’s magic man as he amassed 12 goals and 6 assists in the league last season. Behind him were Abraham who scored 8 times and Stephan El Shaarawy who netted 7 goals, but it is Andrea Belotti who leads the way in 2023-24 so far with 2 goals.
The man that often makes things tick through the middle is captain Lorenzo Pellegrini. Chris Smalling and Gianluca Mancini will also have to be up for the battles against Giroud and Leao respectively, with the Italian in particular known for his short fuse.
Prediction
Given their difficult start to the season, Roma are in need of a much better performance and probably a positive result, which Mourinho will make them fully aware of.
However, this could actually help Milan’s press-and-counter style and going into the derby after the international break with nine points from nine would be a fantastic start.
Roma 1-2 AC Milan
Not sure of my last comment took, but I was trying to say Pioli should try Pulisic as a false 9.
We have a working team with Giroud as 9, why should we use false 9?
I’m quite optimistic for this match, I think we will win comfortably by 2-3 goals. Giroud to score. Pulisic with assist, the other goal by Reijnders.
Pulisic as false 9? Doesn’t make sense. You COULD try that when we have 3 matches in 9 days and two of them are important matches but for a match against Roma after two rounds (match per week)? Heck no!
Giroud and Pulisic have 5 Goals combined so far.
Should be an easy win. Roma is in terrible form right now.
Its good test for Pioli and the players.
Unpredictable Roma, hopefully a win for us.
Forza Milan
Milan 3 – Roma 0
Puli with assist
Giroud a brace (one another pan)
Leao opens his account.
At 60 min Pioli brings on the subs to avoid injury in a game showcasing the dark arts.
2-0 Milan, Leao and the Reindeer. Our left side will terrorize them.
Yeah I left out two assists. I’ll be rooting for a certain Reindeer I like to think of as Dasher to take one of them!
Reijnder is terrible in finishing
Don’t know when is the last time I remember Mou without a win in his first 3 games, so I am cautious. They’d pull every stops and probably be the rougher team in the field, trying to limit our attacking flow. The last time we met, they did nothing for 88 minutes only to score 2 in quick succession – so hopefully we would’ve learnt from that.
A cagey 0-1 victory perhaps?
Roma – Milan 1-3
Milan goals: Leao, Reijnders and Calabria
Mourinho plays anti football.
Pulisic has to be very careful.
This is a type of match he may get injured
i am wondering why some of our players are in Chelsea colours. please do the needful. they are our players now.