Serie A preview: AC Milan vs. Como – Team news, opposition insight, stats and prediction | OneFootball

AC Milan will be up against Como in the 29th round of Serie A action on Saturday evening. After the crucial win in Lecce, the Rossoneri will be looking to continue down a positive path.

Sergio Conceicao has had yet another week to work without interruptions at Milanello and based on his press conference, he’s very happy with the team at the moment. Equally, the players seem a lot more content with his methods.

Tomorrow’s clash is an important one in the race for a Europa League spot, in fact it’s not just important but crucial, and the manager admitted that it will be a difficult clash. Como have quality, even if they are inexperienced in Serie A.

Game date: Saturday, March 15 Kick-off time: 18:00 (CET) Venue: San Siro Referee: Matteo Marchetti (VAR: Doveri)

Team news

Milan were handed an injury boost last week as Alessandro Florenzi returned to training and this week, things got even better as Ruben Loftus-Cheek returned to training with the group. The Englishman still needs time to regain match fitness, like the Italian, but he should be called up.

That leaves just Emerson Royal on the injury list and it will be a few weeks before he’s back in action. Nevertheless, we might have seen his last appearance with the Milan shirt as a departure is nailed on for the summer, while he won’t exactly start over Kyle Walker or even Alex Jimenez.

Mike Maignan and Strahinja Pavlovic have served their respective suspensions, yet another boost for Conceicao, and at least the goalkeeper should both play from start. The Serbian’s red card was very questionable and it came during a good period for him, so hopefully it hasn’t affected him too much.

In midfield, the latest reports suggest that Conceicao will field Yunus Musah and Warren Bondo together. The latter impressed in his debut against Lecce and this will also allow Tijjani Reijnders to play in the more advanced No.10 role, having done better there this season.

Rafael Leao made a difference off the bench against Lecce and after scoring in the reverse fixture against Come, the hope is that he can be decisive from start tomorrow. He will be on the left flank, with Christian Pulisic reverting to the right-hand side.

Up front, Santiago Gimenez has been struggling a bit lately but it seems he will win the battle against Tammy Abraham. Conceicao was asked about playing two strikers during his presser and although he didn’t rule it out as an in-game solution, he was skeptical about doing it from start.

Predicted Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Walker, Gabbia, Thiaw, Hernandez; Musah, Bondo; Pulisic, Reijnders, Leao; Gimenez.

The opponents

It has been a lively, albeit not always brilliant, return to Serie A for Como after over two decades in the cold. The Lariani are currently in 13th place with 29 points and while they have a lot more money than the other smaller teams in Italy, this must be seen as a success still.

The relegation threat is still looming for Cesc Fabregas’ side but after just one defeat in the last five league games, things are looking a lot better. Not to mention that the January signings Maxence Caqueret and Assane Diao have certainly helped the situation.

Diao, aged just 19, has five goals in ten games and one of those came in the reverse fixture against Milan. In short, the Rossoneri will have to watch out for him again – specifically Theo Hernandez – and the same goes for a lot of the other players (such as Nico Paz).

There are no injuries or suspensions to note, which is something that Fabregas also confirmed during his presser earlier today: “For the first time, everyone is available. There are 26 players training as a group. I’m pleased, everyone is involved. Sergi Roberto has also recovered. Obviously, not everyone is ready to take to the field for 90 minutes,” he began.

The manager also made it clear that while Milan are a great team, Como cannot be afraid of playing their football: “We always play with courage, we always need personality, otherwise we cannot put our type of football into practice,” he stated.

Taking a look at the predicted eleven for the away side, the aforementioned Diao looks set to start up front and that means there will be no Patrick Cutrone from the first minute. The striker spent many seasons at Milan, including the academy, and scored 27 goals for the Rossoneri’s first team.

Predicted Como XI (4-3-2-1): Butez; Smolcic, Goldaniga, Kempf, Valle; Perrone, Caqueret, Da Cunha; Strefezza, Paz; Diao.

Head to head

The fixture between Milan and Como has been played 33 times in all competitions, with the Rossoneri winning just over half of these (18). The Lariani have only won 5 games so far and 10 have ended in draws. In other words, Milan have a historical advantage.

With just one defeat in the last four games, however, Como are in better form than the Rossoneri so you could definitely say that there is a current advantage. Perhaps the comeback against Lecce at the weekend has changed things for Conceicao’s men, though.

Taking a look at the reverse fixture this season, Milan conceded the first goal of the game in the second half. However, as seen so many times, the Rossoneri fought back and scored two goals in six minutes to turn everything around (Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao).

For the last meeting at San Siro, however, we have to go back to the 2002-03 season when the Rossoneri prevailed 2-0. The goals were scored by Pippo Inzaghi and Alessandro Nesta (oh how times have changed!).

Key facts and stats

➤ Milan are unbeaten in their last 12 Serie A games against Como (W7 D5), winning all three against them in the 2000s; the only time the Rossoneri have recorded four consecutive wins against Como in the competition was between 1951 and 1952.

➤ Como have won just one of their 12 away games against Milan in Serie A (D4 L7): 2-0 in January 1985, with goals from Gianfranco Matteoli and Pasquale Bruno. They’ve also failed to score in their last five such matches (most recently in 2003).

➤ Milan have won five of their last six games against teams starting the matchday in the bottom half of the table (L1), as many wins as in their previous 13 matches against those teams (D6 L2).

➤ Como are unbeaten in three of their last four Serie A games (W2 D1), as many times as in their previous eight league games (W2 D1) – however, they have just one win in their most recent 10 away games in the competition (D3 L6).

➤ Milan have conceded exactly two goals in each of their last four league games; they have conceded more than one goal in five consecutive matches in a single Serie A season on just three occasions in their history: twice in the 1940s and most recently in April 1974.

➤ Como have won 17 of their 29 points in Serie A this term against teams currently in the top half of the table: only Napoli (30), Atalanta (22), Inter (20) and Juventus (19) have won more points against these teams in the current tournament.

➤ Milan have attempted the most shots from outside the box in Serie A this term (148); on the other hand, only Bologna (79) have conceded fewer such shots than Como (95).

➤ Como are the second team in the last 50 years to have two players who have scored at least five goals in a Serie A season before turning 21 (5 goals for Assane Diao and 6 goals for Nico Paz), after Reggina 1999/2000 (Andrea Pirlo and Mohammed Kallon).

➤ Rafael Leão is close to 250 appearances in all competitions with Milan (currently 249, with 68 goals and 50 assists): since his debut with the Rossoneri in 2019-20, he is the only Serie A player who has scored at least 50 goals and provided at least 50 assists in all competitions.

➤ Assane Diao, who scored his first Serie A goal in the reverse fixture against Milan, with one goal would become the Como player to have scored the most goals in the competition before turning 20 (currently 5, level with Giovanni Migliorini and Bruno Susmel).

Ones to watch

Warren Bondo impressed in his debut, as said, and if he does indeed start tomorrow then it will be very interesting to see him in the tandem. He clearly has a lot of quality, as we saw during his time at Monza, and he could cement his spot in the XI with a good performance.

Christian Pulisic was stunning against Lecce and hopefully, he can continue like that tomorrow as well. Milan just need to put him in the right positions, which has been far from the case in too many games this season.

Photo by Maurizio Lagana/Getty Images

For Como, Edoardo Goldaniga is an experienced leader at the back and he will likely be tasked with Santiago Gimenez. The defender will definitely be able to match him in size so it should be an interesting in-game battle.

It’s impossible not to mention Diao given his cracking start to life at Como. The fact he scored in the reverse fixture should give him some extra confidence as well. On the other hand, he’s still young and the Milan defenders must rely on their experience to stop him.

Prediction

It won’t be a walk in the park for Milan, unless they have done extraordinary work at Milanello, so we should be looking at a game with no clean sheets. Como have proved that they can hurt big teams before and Milan, while not brilliant defensively, at least know how to score. A repeat of the first fixture is thus very possible.

AC Milan 2-1 Como