AC Milan take on Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Wednesday night, and here’s how Stefano Pioli’s starting line-up could look.
The Rossoneri will be hoping to bounce back after our defeat to Juventus at the weekend, and particularly given our consecutive goalless draws in the Champions League group stage thus far, three points will be crucial for our hopes of advancing.
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Pioli will be buoyed by the return of a key trio for this encounter, with Mike Maignan and Theo Hernandez missing out on Sunday night due to suspension, while Pierre Kalulu has been tipped to come in for Davide Calabria, as per MilanNews.
Kalulu will be expected to deputise for Malick Thiaw in Serie A after the German defender was sent off against Juve, but he’ll have a job to do at right-back in this one as Milan hope to build on a solid defensive display.
Maignan will return between the posts as Antonio Mirante will drop back to the bench, with a back-four of Kalulu, Thiaw, Fikayo Tomori and Theo ahead of him.
As noted above, Milan have been excellent defensively in Europe thus far having kept back-to-back clean sheets against Newcastle Utd and Borussia Dortmund respectively, and it’s hoped that we can make it three in a row in what promises to be a difficult test.
Kalulu’s inclusion will be critical to try and deal with the pace and power of the likes of Kylian Mbappe in wide areas, but the French giants do have several dangerous threats that we’ll have to effectively deal with in order to have any hope of coming away with a positive result.
It’s possible that Pioli goes with the same midfield trio from Sunday, with Yunus Musah, Yacine Adli and Tijjani Reinjders getting the nod, as Ruben Loftus-Cheek has been ruled out as he continues his recovery from injury.
Our attacking trident could also be unchanged with Christian Pulisic, Olivier Giroud and Rafael Leao tasked with finding a breakthrough against PSG, and while we simply weren’t good enough on Sunday and didn’t show enough quality in our attacking play, these same individuals have to step up and deliver in this one.
Time will tell if Pioli does opt to go a different route with the likes of Calabria, Rade Krunic and Tommaso Pobega perhaps pushing for a starting berth, but Samuel Chukwueze, Marco Sportiello, Loftus-Cheek and Noah Okafor aren’t at his disposal for this clash, as he looks to get the better of tough opposition.
