AC Milan vs Napoli Preview & Prediction | 2024-25 Italian Serie A
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It is one of the biggest games in Italian football between two famous clubs meeting at San Siro as AC Milan, in form but struggling to push up the table, taking on league leading Napoli during this midweek.
KICK-OFF DATE/TIME: Tuesday 29th October, 2024 - UK – 7:45pm / US ET – 3:45pm / US PT – 12:45pm
HOW TO WATCH ON TV: UK –Not televised / US – Select matches will be televised on CBS Sports so it is worth checking their schedule
HOW TO WATCH ONLINE: UK – OneFootball / US – Paramount+
AC MILAN PREVIEW: REBUILDING THE ROSSONERI
AC Milan had started the season quite slowly following the appointment of former Lille, Roma and Shakhtar Donetsk boss Paulo Fonseca, who replaced Stefano Pioli. The Rossoneri begin this midweek round of fixtures sitting outside of the top seven and the European spots but have now won four of their last five games in Serie A.
At the weekend, Milan were due to be playing Bologna but that game was postponed due to flooding in the Bologna area. That means their most recent outing was a 3-1 defeat of Club Brugge in the UEFA Champions League in midweek with goals from Christian Pulisic and a brace from Tijjani Reijnders.
NAPOLI PREVIEW: NAPOLI AT THE TOP
After a summer of complaints and indifferent business, Antonio Conte’s reign in charge of Napoli began with a 3-0 defeat to Hellas Verona on the opening weekend of the campaign. The Neapolitans ended up spending over £100 million and have now collected 22 points from 24 available since then.
Napoli have had to grind out victories by a goal to nil against Empoli and Lecce after the October international break. They defeated Empoli in Florence with a second-half penalty from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia before then edging past Lecce at the weekend with a second-half strike from captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo.
AC MILAN TEAM NEWS: NO REIJNDERS
Tijjani Reijnders was due to be suspended for Milan against Bologna this weekend but the Netherlands international will now have to miss this one instead due to that postponement.
Theo Hernandez is also out suspended for Milan with Davide Calabria, Alessandro Florenzi, Ismael Bennacer and Tammy Abraham all sidelined due to injury.
PREDICTED XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Emerson Royal, Thiaw, Pavlovic, Terracciano; Fofana, Loftus-Cheek; Chukwueze, Pulisic, Leao; Alvaro Morata
UNAVAILABLE: Calabria (Injured), Hernandez (Suspended), Florenzi (Injured), Bennacer (Injured), Reijnders (Suspended), Abraham (Injured)
QUESTIONABLE:
NAPOLI TEAM NEWS: GOOD SQUAD
The late arrivals of the likes of Billy Gilmour, Scott McTominay and David Neres means that Napoli do have the depth to deal with injuries to Stanislav Lobotka, for example.
The Neapolitans have been able to deal with injury issues but the intensity of the Conte style of football could still mean changes for more rotational purposes.
PREDICTED XI (4-3-3): Meret; Di Lorenzo, Rrahmani, Buongiorno, Mathias Olivera; Anguissa, Gilmour, McTominay; Politano, Lukaku, Kvaratskhelia
UNAVAILABLE:
QUESTIONABLE: Lobotka (Injured)
AC MILAN VS NAPOLI PREDICTION
As mentioned, AC Milan had started the season poorly before growing into the campaign and not playing at the weekend may well have helped them with Paulo Fonseca able to get players fitter and more up to speed with his style of football. Napoli are grinding out victories but, weirdly, do have a plethora of attacking options playing an un-Conte 4-3-3 system. The fact Napoli have been low-scoring to this point means a both teams to score bet may actually be good value for this heavyweight showdown at San Siro.
AC MILAN VS NAPOLI TIP: BOTH TEAMS TO SCORE
