Stadio San Siro is the venue as Milan and Fiorentina lock horns in one of the most exciting fixtures on this weekend’s Serie A schedule. The Rossoneri are in pole position to win their first Scudetto since 2011, but the remainder of the season will not be kind to Stefano Pioli’s side.
Milan pulled off a stunning second-half comeback to win 2-1 at Lazio last week as Olivier Giroud and Sandro Tonali found the net to cancel out Ciro Immobile’s early deadlock-breaker. With Inter going down at Bologna 2-1 in bizarre fashion last time out, the seven-time European champions head into proceedings two points clear at the summit.
In stark contrast to Milan’s exceptional week, Fiorentina succumbed to a humiliating 4-0 home defeat to Udinese last time out, throwing their European pursuit into doubt. Vincenzo Italiano’s men currently trail sixth-placed Roma by two points. But another underwhelming result could prove detrimental to their bid to return to continental action for the first time since 2016/17.
Match Preview
Milan
The abovementioned triumph at Lazio made it 12 Serie A matches without losing for Milan (W7, D5). An inspiring run of form will bolster Pioli’s bid to avenge a 4-3 defeat in the reverse fixture at Artemio Franchi and avoid becoming the first Rossoneri boss since Fatih Terim to suffer a league double at the hands of Fiorentina in 2000/01.
Pioli has urged Milan to keep ‘warm hearts and calm heads’ in the season finale, knowing only perfection would do in the crunch period of the championship. The Rossoneri have been nothing short of outstanding defensively in 2022, conceding a mere eight goals in 15 Serie A matches since the turn of the year.
Across Europe’s top-five leagues, only Liverpool (six) have conceded fewer goals than Milan in 2022. Indeed, Pioli’s men have kept a clean sheet in their last three Serie A home outings and could make it four in a row at San Siro in Italy’s top-flight for the first time since March 2019.
Fiorentina
It’s been a week to forget for Fiorentina, who followed up a 2-1 defeat at Salernitana last weekend with a dreadful home reverse to Udinese in midweek. Another reverse here would see La Viola lost three successive Serie A matches for the first time since March 2019, but they have a decent H2H record at San Siro to rely on ahead of this trip.
Indeed, before losing 2-0 last season, Fiorentina had won back-to-back Serie A meetings with Milan in Lombardy. Italiano’s men have benefited from playing as pre-match outsiders on the road of late, picking up points at Inter (1-1) and Napoli (3-2) after breaking the dealock in both fixtures.
However, Fiorentina’s defending has been poor on the road of recently. They have conceded 2+ goals in their last three competitive away games, while they have not kept a clean sheet on 13 consecutive Serie A road trips since a 1-0 win at Udinese in September.
Milan vs Fiorentina Team News
Simon Kjaer and Alessandro Florenzi are the only Milan players that will miss out on Sunday’s encounter.
On the other hand, Fiorentina will be without Gaetano Castrovilli to a knee injury, yet Italiano will have the remainder of his squad fit and ready.
Milan Potential Starting XI (4-2-3-1): Mike Maignan; Davide Calabria, Pierre Kalulu, Fikayo Tomori, Theo Hernandez; Ismael Bennacer, Sandro Tonali; Junior Messias, Franck Kessie, Rafael Leao; Olivier Giroud.
Fiorentina Potential Starting XI (4-3-3): Pietro Terracciano; Alvaro Odriozola, Igor, Nikola Milenkovic, Cristiano Biraghi; Giacomo Bonaventura, Sofyan Amrabat, Alfred Duncan; Nicolas Gonzalez, Arthur Cabral, Riccardo Saponara.