Milan’s pursuit of their first Serie A title since 2010/11 continues on Saturday as they welcome bottom-half Empoli to the Stadio San Siro.
Olivier Giroud stepped up to the plate at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona last time out to hand Milan a precious 1-0 win away to Napoli. Back to the top of the Serie A table, the Rossoneri harbour a slender two-point lead on second-placed Inter, who also have a game in hand.
Stefano Pioli’s men have no margin for error against an Empoli side that are having a tough time in Serie A. The visitors played out an uneventful ‘nil-nil’ draw at relegation-battling Genoa last time out, taking their winless league streak to 11 matches (D5, L6).
Milan Preview
The abovementioned victory in Naples halted Milan’s run of consecutive Serie A draws in which they opened the scoring. Yet, the Rossoneri have failed to impress against bottom-half teams of late, with only two wins from their last six such match-ups (D3, L1).
Milan’s patchy form at San Siro could be a problem. Pioli’s men have only won once across their last four Serie A home matches (D2, L1) despite scoring the opening goal in three of them. Entertainment has been relatively sparse at San Siro, with each of their last three top-flight game here featuring under 2.5 goals.
But Milan will draw confidence from winning this exact fixture 3-0 back last season after going five successive Serie A home H2Hs without a clean sheet. They also racked up a 4-2 triumph at Empoli earlier this season and could make it three top-flight H2H wins in a row for the first time since 2006.
Empoli Preview
After a promising first half of the season, Empoli have collapsed across their last 11 league outings, with no side picking up fewer points than them (six) in that period. But tucked in mid-table comforts, they still hold a comfortable ten-point lead on 18th-placed Venezia.
Conceding first may not necessarily spell disaster for Empoli’s hopes of staying unbeaten here. Aurelio Andreazzoli’s men have avoided defeat in 43% of their Serie A away matches in which they fell behind this season (3/7).
It may come a bit surprising, though, as they’ve registered a slight majority (56%) of their away league goals scored in the first half of play (10/18). But they’ve drawn a blank in their last three Serie A road trips (D2, L1) against Genoa, Sampdoria and Bologna, all bottom-half rivals.
Empoli’s five-game Serie A form at San Siro (W2, D1, L2) gives travelling fans plenty to look forward to in Lombardy. However, Gli Azzurri could suffer their first top-flight double at the hands of Milan since the 2005/06 season.
How Could Milan Line Up?
In addition to long-term absentees Simon Kjaer and Tiemoue Bakayoko, Milan will be without talismanic left-back Theo Hernandez. The Frenchman accumulated yellow cards against Napoli last weekend.
But Alessio Romagnoli has returned to the fold and could challenge Pierre Kalulu for a starting berth alongside Fikayo Tomori.
Milan Potential Starting XI:
(4-2-3-1): Mike Maignan; Davide Calabria, Fikayo Tomori, Alessio Romagnoli, Alessandro Florenzi; Sandro Tonali, Ismael Bennacer; Alexis Saelemaekers, Brahim Diaz, Rafael Leao; Olivier Giroud.
How could Empoli Line Up?
Nicolas Haas, Ricardo Marchizza and Emmanuel Ekong are all sidelined with injuries in the Empoli camp.
Other than them, Andreazzoli will have the remainder of his squad available for selection, including top scorer Andrea Pinamonti, who is on loan from Milan’s fierce rivals Inter.
Empoli Potential Starting XI:
(4-3-2-1): Guglielmo Vicario; Petar Stojanovic, Simone Romagnoli, Sebastiano Luperto, Fabiano Parisi; Szymon Zurkowski, Kristjan Asllani, Bandinelli; Liam Henderson, Nedim Bajrami; Andrea Pinamonti.