AC Milan team news: Romagnoli, Castillejo and Calabria updates vs Fiorentina

   November 18, 2021

AC Milan travel to Florence to face Fiorentina on Saturday night, and Stefano Pioli will hope that the international break hasn’t disrupted our good run of form.

The Rossoneri prepare for this encounter sitting in second place in the Serie A table, level on points with leaders Napoli, after collecting 32 points from our opening 12 outings.

READ MORE: Why extending Romagnoli’s contract would be smart move from Milan

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In turn, it’s important that we start strong this weekend to pick up from where we left off to avoid slipping off the pace, with rivals Inter in third spot and seven points adrift of us currently.

It won’t be easy against a talented Fiorentina side though, with the hosts well positioned in 7th place ahead of the showdown, as they sit just four points off from fourth place.

Nevertheless, as we’ve shown so far this season, there is a relentless push to win in this squad, and it’s hoped that continues on Saturday.

Castillejo, Calabria doubts but Romagnoli to return

While the focus for now is undoubtedly on Fiorentina, Milan also face Atletico Madrid in a crunch Champions League tie on Wednesday night.

Pioli will have one eye on that when selecting his team as ultimately he has rotated his side throughout the campaign thus far, and so we could see some changes this weekend.

As per MilanNews’ Antonio Vitiello in his tweet below, Alessio Romagnoli is expected to be available after he resumed group training on Thursday, but both Samu Castillejo and Davide Calabria are seemingly set to miss out through injury.

Calabria in particular is a blow given his permanence in the Milan XI for the majority of this campaign to date, while we lose a solid option off the bench in Castillejo if we are chasing the game late on.

Time will tell what Pioli decides to go with, but with Romagnoli likely to be in contention, that gives him the opportunity to rest one of Simon Kjaer or Fikayo Tomori if he wishes, while the same could be said of Zlatan Ibrahimovic up top with Olivier Giroud available.

Further, one of Pierre Kalulu or Alessandro Florenzi is expected to step in for Calabria, while Ante Rebic could yet rival Rafael Leao for a starting berth on the left flank after making his return from injury last time out.