At 3:45 am on December 23, Beijing time, a focus battle in the 19th round of the Serie A of the 2021-22 season is about to kick off. The “Romans” AC Milan will head to the away game to challenge Empoli. Before the start of this game, Milan has experienced two rounds of embarrassment, and its ranking in the Serie A standings has also fallen from the top to the third. In this game, facing the mid-ranking Empoli, can Milan regain Master the key to victory?
History of confrontation
Historically, the two sides played against each other 30 times, and Milan had the absolute upper hand with 16 wins, 10 draws and 4 losses. In Empoli’s home game, the two sides played 15 times, Milan 6 wins, 8 draws and 1 loss also prevailed. In the past 9 matches between the two sides, Milan have 4 wins, 4 draws and 1 loss. In the two matches last season, Milan defeated their opponents 3-0 at home, and shook hands with their opponents 1-1 on the away game.
Aspect 1: Milan strives for 3 points to stop decadence
In the past two rounds, Milan first drew with Udinese 1-1, then lost 0-1 at home to Naples. After two rounds of invincibility, Milan’s position in the standings has slipped to third, behind the top of the Inter Milan by 4 points and evenly with Naples. It is worth mentioning that because Milan has already left the Champions League and only one goal this season is left in Serie A, Pioli’s team naturally hopes to score 3 points against Empoli and continue to offer Inter Milan. Pressure.
Aspect 2: How to adjust the wounded Pioli camp
At this stage, the biggest problem for Milan is the injury of the players. Although from the starting lineup, Milan’s lineup is still neat, but after the lack of Kjaer in the back line, the stability of the line of defense is open to question. At the same time, the absence of Leon and Rebic on the front line also made Ibrahimovic a little lonely. From this perspective, the injuries of these players have caused Pioli to lack a lot of changes in the lineup, so how to solve this problem, it seems that it is time to test Pioli.
Aspect Three: Can Ibrahimovic’s injury stop Giroud?
At the pre-match conference of this game, Milan coach Pioli confirmed that the team’s top scorer Ibrahimovic will not be able to participate because Da Fengxian’s left knee has exceeded the load. The implication is that Ibrahimovic was affected by a left knee injury. Fortunately, Giroud came back and played as a substitute in the last round of the game against Naples. In this game, Giroud will be at the forefront, but can Giroud, who has just returned from injury, show his best form on the court? We can only wait and see this.
Injury report:
Empoli: Nicholas Haas (injury)
Milan: Rebic (injury), Kjaer (injury), Calabria (injury), Pellegri (injury), Leo (injury), Ibrahimovic (injury)
Pre-match sound
Pioli: We will face a strong opponent, and we need to show dedicated attention and strong determination. They play very well, are well trained and have a fast pace, but we also have our characteristics. It is normal for the state to have ups and downs, but we are now more determined than before, and the most important thing is to focus on tomorrow’s game. Our goal is to do better in the standings than in the same period last season. We may not be able to do it now, but it is still very important to take all three points tomorrow. Now we are thinking more about preventing injuries and strengthening players’ recovery. There were too many muscle injuries in November. From a long-term perspective, we may pay for it. Now we are working hard to overcome this problem, and hope that this problem can be overcome after the Christmas holidays.
Predicted starter
Empoli (4-3-1-2): Vicario/Stojanovic, Markiza, Luperto, Tonelli/Ricci, Zurkovsky, Bandy Nellie/Liam Henderson/Di Francisco, Pinamonti
Milan (4-2-3-1): Meignan/Florence, Tomori, Romagnoli, Teo/Tonali, Casey/Messias, Dias, Salemak Gilles/GiroudReturn to Sohu to see more
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