Previewing Milan’s match against Cagliari
Milan will eye an ascent to the Serie A leaders spot when they face Cagliari at the Unipol Domus.
After exiting the Supercoppa Italiana in the semi-final round, Milan rebounded with a 3-0 victory over Hellas Verona in their last match. Christian Pulisic scored the opener and Christopher Nkunku finally made his mark with a brace later on.
Massimiliano Allegri’s men are just a point away from league leaders Inter in the standings, and any slip-up from the Nerazzurri could help Milan regain top spot, provided they remain perfect in their next few matches. However, Milan are closely followed by Napoli, Roma and Juventus, who are a point off each other in the pecking order.
Following a 2-1 loss to Cremonese earlier in the season, the Rossoneri have mustered a 14-game unbeaten run, and this is something fans will cherish as they see their club back on track after a dismal end to last campaign. Allegri has kept his cards close to his chest, relying on players like Luka Modric and Pulisic to come away with positive results for most of the season. He is playing a tight and rigid structure, and Milan have made the least amount of substitutions across Europe’s top-five leagues till now.
Meanwhile, Cagliari will not have much to look forward to in this match as they have won just five times out of the 46 meetings with Milan. The Sardinia-based side are six points clear of the dropzone, and they will hope to keep it that way by adding a stable amount of points from their next few games.
Fabio Pisacane’s men have just won once in their 12 previous Serie A matches before facing Torino last weekend. Strikes from Matteo Prati and Semih Kilicsoy cancelled Nikola Vlasic’s opener and helped Cagliari get the three points. A struggle for survival awaits Cagliari this season and they will need to pull off a near-perfect performance if they want to get anything out of the Milan encounter.
Results from their last five matches across all competitions
Cagliari:
W D L W L
Milan:
W L D W L
Team News
Rafael Leao should be back on the squad as he has resumed full training, but Allegri might opt to start Pulisic and Nkunku up front and then ease the Portuguese into action later.
Matteo Gabbia and Santiago Gimenez are still injured.
As for Cagliari, Juan Rodriguez and Yerry Mina are back from respective ailments. Andrea Belotti, Ze Pedro, Mattia Felici and Michael Folorunsho are injured.
Predicted XIs
Cagliari (3-5-2): Caprile; Zappa, Mina, Luperto; Palestra, Adopo, Deiola, Prati, Idrissi; Esposito, Kilicsoy.
Milan (3-4-1-2): Maignan; Tomori, De Winter, Pavlovic; Saelemaekers, Loftus-Cheek, Modric, Rabiot, Bartesaghi; Pulisic, Nkunku.
Category: General Sports
