AC Milan vs. Juventus: Match Preview, Odds & Prediction

Two Serie A behemoths will meet on Saturday night as AC Milan welcomes Juventus to San Siro. After a six-goal thriller with Cagliari just before the break, Milan slid six points behind Juve; the Bianconeri’s most recent Turin Derby victory maintained them in a six-way struggle for top position.

Previous Matches and Head-to-head

Milan surrendered right at the start and again at the very end of their last game before international football interfered. An interesting 3-3 draw in Cagliari sums up their defensive flaws this season.

Inspired by his performance in the Rossoneri’s shock Champions League triumph over Real Madrid a few days earlier, Rafael Leao scored twice, but before Tammy Abraham’s second-half strike seemed to wrap up success, Gabriele Zappa completed an impressive brace in the 90th minute and the spoils were eventually shared.

Milan’s 18 points are thus only sufficient for seventh place in the rankings, eight behind Napoli at the top of Serie A—although with one game still on hand.

Even if the second-city team beats Juventus this weekend, their points total after 12 games would be less than in any of the last four years, and head coach Paulo Fonseca has unavoidably come under fire.

Slovan Bratislava, Red Star Belgrade, Girona, and Dinamo Zagreb are next on the schedule in Europe. A Champions League playoff position appears well within their reach, yet losing on Saturday evening would see them slip farther behind Italy’s top six.

Milan may have let up only two goals in their last seven league games against Juve, but closing the back door on this one might be asking a lot of Serie A’s eighth-best defense.

Juventus maintained their lengthy dominance against city rivals Torino just before the break, setting a record streak in the Derby della Mole with 19 games free from loss.

After a twelve-match run, goals from Timothy Weah and Kenan Yildiz settled the Turin Derby to Bianconeri’s advantage, therefore maintaining their two points in top position.

Juve has had an undefeated start to the Serie A season, drawing and winning six games. They are in the midst of a perhaps interesting championship fight; six clubs are now separated by two points despite all their shortcomings and injury problems.

Though they let four goals in a crazy Derby d’Italia against Inter, Thiago Motta’s side, who sit just above Milan in the Champions League rankings, have preserved four clean sheets in the first five away games of their top-flight season.

Returning to San Siro this week, Juventus aims to prevent such an unusual loss of control as success would raise their own Scudetto prospects and severely damage Milan’s.

AC Milan vs. Juventus Team News

Milan has various choices ahead of time; ex-Juventus striker Alvaro Morata recently returned to play with Spain in the UEFA Nations League, while his 16-year-old deputy Francesco Camarda began against Cagliari and scored twice for Italy Under-19s.

Although Luka Jovic joins Alessandro Florenzi and Ismael Bennacer on the Milanello treatment table, Tammy Abraham is also present but has been suffering from a groin problem.

Rafael Leao, who was sacked earlier this month, has returned to somewhere close to his peak. The Portuguese juggernaut has finished the most dribbles in Serie A 2024; he also needs one more goal to achieve double digits for a third straight calendar year.

Juve will be without their main point upfront. Top scorer Dusan Vlahovic has a thigh injury, while backup backup striker Arkadiusz Milik will not return until next year.

With backup from Francisco Conceicao and Teun Koopmeiners, Timothy Weah, son of Milan icon George Weah, or Kenan Yildiz might come in as a false nine. Should Yildiz score on Saturday, he will overtake Alessandro Del Piero and rank seventh among young players by reaching six Serie A goals for Juventus at nineteen years and 203 days.

Manuel Locatelli, one of ten players who have scored for both sides in this game, could start in midfield. Douglas Luiz may be missing once again after being returned to the Italy team after a better performance this season.

The latter could be compelled to join Vlahovic, Milik, Juan Cabal, Nico Gonzalez, and fellow Brazilian Bremer on the sidelines.

Our Predictions

Full-time draw @ 3.35 on Sky247.ng

Milan could fail to stop Juve’s perfect run as their weak back four cannot be counted on to remain tight for 90 minutes.

While Paulo Fonseca’s potential-packed team is prone to expensive mistakes, the Bianconeri are short of several important players but have shown resilience since Thiago Motta assumed over.

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