Yahoo Sports The five key battles that could win or lose the game for Milan against Genoa
AC Milan will celebrate 125 years of history at San Siro tonight, however the main event is on the field and the mission is three points against Genoa.
Milan extended their winning streak in Champions League earlier this week with a 2-1 win over Red Star, but it came via a late Tammy Abraham goal and Paulo Fonseca chose to criticise the attitude of certain members of the side.
During his pre-match presser, the coach stated that his brutal words after the Red Star were needed to wake the team up. Now, a response is required tonight to get the league campaign back on track.
The key battles
Genoa are, alongside Udinese, one of the two teams that Rafael Leão has faced at least five times in Serie A without being involved in more than one goal. However, the Portuguese player has been involved in three goals in his last four league appearances, so he is in fine form.
Given that he has been playing a more central role, it is likely that he will come up against Mattia Bani more that the full-back Sabelli. The 31-year-old is in his fifth season with Genoa and has established himself as a starter, and he will hope that his experience comes in handy today.
With Christian Pulisic, Yunus Musah and Ruben Loftus-Cheek all injured, Mattia Liberali will get a golden opportunity in his first senior start from the club. It has been a strange few months for him after shining in preseason then vanishing to the Primavera, but this is a big moment in the spotlight.
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His opponent will be someone with plenty of experience in Milan Badelj. The 35-year-old is the captain of Genoa and has been in Serie A since 2014 (barring the Rossoblu’s brief stint in Serie B), and he will face someone that is less than half his age.
There will be an intriguing contest in the midfield between Youssouf Fofana and Morten Frendrup. The Frenchman has become a key cog since his arrival from Monaco in the summer, though there are still doubts about the overall balance of the side.
For Frendrup, on the other hand, this could be an audition of sorts. Several sources have linked Milan with a potential January move for the Dane, who is 23 years of age and is right up there among Serie A midfielders for a lot of the defensive statistics.
Moving to Genoa’s attack, Andrea Pinamonti is certainly the main threat as he has five league goals so far this season, which doesn’t sound like much but they have scored only 13 goals in 15 games overall.
The on-loan Sassuolo man – previously at Inter – will face off against his compatriot Matteo Gabbia. The Italian continues to be Milan’s most reliable option when it comes to the centre-back department, and should once again partner Malick Thiaw.
Finally, we come to the other Milan Futuro starlet who Fonseca will give a chance to. Alex Jimenez is being widely tipped to start over Theo Hernandez at left-back, given the Frenchman’s struggles to find any kind of form this season.
Jimenez is very similar to Theo in the way he plays the role, looking to get forward and create rather than staying back and tucking in. He should see plenty of Alessandro Zanoli as a result, who is more naturally a right-back but will apparently be playing as a right winger tonight.
