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Juventus vs AC Milan match preview: Stats, team news and key battles

Sumeet Paul

AC Milan travel to Turin to face Juventus on Sunday night as we look to maintain our perfect start to the Serie A season.

The Rossoneri have won three of three thus far, with only Roma and Napoli sitting top of the table with nine points too.

READ MORE: Talking tactics: Defensive frailties, clinical finishing as Milan fall to Liverpool

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In contrast, Juve have struggled in the opening few games having collected just one point, and so Massimiliano Allegri and his players will be desperate to get their first win on the board this weekend.

As with any trip away at Juventus, this is going to be a difficult test for Milan, and it will be interesting to see how the team reacts following our defeat to Liverpool in the Champions League in midweek.

Stats

In the last six meetings between these two sides across all competitions, Milan have won two, drawn two and lost two.

The corresponding fixture last season ended in a 3-0 win for the Rossoneri in what proved to be a pivotal moment in our campaign as we made a late push to secure Champions League qualification.

That was our first win in Turin since March 2011, having lost nine straight in between in Serie A meetings.

Team news

Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Rade Krunic are all major doubts for this encounter due to injury, while both Andrea Conti and Messias Junior will miss out too.

There are a few spots in the starting XI that have yet to be decided, namely up front as Ante Rebic and Olivier Giroud battle for the same position while Alessio Romagnoli could come back in for Simon Kjaer in defence after impressing last weekend.

As for Juventus, Arthur, Kaio Jorge and Mattia De Sciglio are out due to injury.

Key battles

Rebic vs Chiellini, Bonucci

Similarly to midweek, Ante Rebic faces a difficult task this weekend as he looks to ensure he isn’t left isolated up front in a tough encounter away from home.

The Croatian forward has been brilliant so far this week, scoring a goal and providing two assists in two games while also playing a pivotal role in the build-up to our second goal at Anfield.

His movement and ability to drag the defenders out of position while also making dangerous runs in the channels to not only set up goalscoring opportunities for himself but also for others, will be a key part of our attack on Sunday.

Tonali vs Locatelli

Manuel Locatelli has had a lot to say again this week in the build up to this game, and it’s hoped that Sandro Tonali can continue to show that he is the long-term future of the Milan midfield.

While he was benched in midweek at Liverpool due to an issue which kept him out of training, it’s expected that he will be fit to start on Sunday and will hopefully pick up from where he left off in the opening league games.

He has imposed himself on games much better and is showing the technical quality needed at this level to make a difference, and so it’s imperative he provides that creative class and outshines Locatelli in midfield.

Kessie vs Dybala

Paulo Dybala will likely drop deeper to influence the game with his creativity, with Alvaro Morata left up top as the sole striker.

That is where Franck Kessie comes into play as he must do a much better job of protecting the backline and getting a foothold in this game than he did at Anfield.

If he can break things up, set us on our way in attack quickly, it will be vital to our quick transitions and counter attacking to ensure we give Juventus real problems and make them think twice about committing too many players forward.

Full-back duel

Theo Hernandez, Davide Calabria, Alex Sandro and Danilo all like to get forward, and so this will be important to watch on either flank in terms of who wins the battle.

All four can be caught out defensively, and so it’s imperative that our full-back duo stay switched on and push forward as much as possible to not only offer us a threat, but to pen their opposing numbers back into their own half where they are less effective.

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