The five key battles that could win or lose the game for Milan against Hellas Verona

AC Milan will take on Hellas Verona away from home this evening looking to keep up with the pace setters in the Serie A title race.

There will be a number of key battles that will have a big influence in deciding the game, starting with the midfield where Sandro Tonali will duel with Miguel Veloso. Tonali scored his only Serie A brace against Verona at the Bentegodi in the same game last year, so his forward runs will have to be watched.

Olivier Giroud is without a goal in his last four games so he will aim to end what is a mini drought in his 12th consecutive start for the Rossoneri, with German centre-back Koray Gunter the man tased with stopping him.

Young Swedish defender Isak Hien is tipped to start on the right side of Verona’s three-man rearguard, and he will have the very tough assignment of stopping Rafael Leao who got both assists for Tonali’s brace last season with his surging runs.

Fikayo Tomori must put Tuesday’s red card behind him and respond with a solid performance tonight against Thomas Henry, who showed his threat last season as he had 12 goal contributions in a Venezia team who were far from free scoring.

Finally, there is the battle of the wing-backs as Theo Hernandez and Davide Faraoni square off. The latter actually scored against Milan to give Verona the lead last season with a header, while Theo is of course absolutely vital to how the attacking build-up functions under Pioli.