Defending Serie A champions AC Milan make the journey to the Stadio Olimpico di Torino to lock horns with mid-table Torino on Sunday evening.
Milan’s bid to progress beyond the Champions League group stages for the first time since 2013/14 received a boost on Tuesday as Stefano Pioli’s side dismantled Dinamo Zagreb 4-0 in Croatia.
Despite seizing control of a coveted runner-up spot in a highly-competitive Group E, the Rossoneri are only at the halfway point, with a ‘winner takes all’ encounter against RB Salzburg coming up next.
However, they cannot afford to take their eyes off domestic proceedings if they’re to win the Scudetto in back-to-back seasons for the first time in the new millennium.
With high-flying Napoli running riot and boasting a three-point lead at the summit, second-placed Milan must stay on the upward trajectory they’ve been riding on since mid-September.
Since the Partenopei’s 2-1 win at the San Siro over a month ago, Pioli’s men have gone from strength to strength in Serie A, stringing together four consecutive triumphs.
Last weekend’s 4-1 thumping of Silvio Berlusconi’s Monza showed how talismanic Milan might be in front of goal, with former Liverpool cult hero Divock Origi bagging a screamer to open his Serie A account.
Unlike their visitors, Torino were heading in the wrong direction off the back of a frustrating five-game winless Serie A streak (D1, L4) until a morale-bolstering 2-1 away win over Udinese got them back on track.
Stuck in mid-table lethargy, Ivan Juric’s men are at least safe from the relegation line, though they’ll have to launch a substantial winning run to battle their way back into the top-six race.
Match Preview
Torino
Torino’s top-half pursuit has never picked up momentum, mainly due to a lack of consistency that has highlighted Juric’s topsy-turvy managerial reign.
You’d have to go back to January for the Granata’s last back-to-back Serie A victories, while the hosts last troubled the scoresheet against Milan in Serie A in September 2019.
Since Walter Mazzarri helped Torino to a 2-1 home triumph over the Rossoneri three years ago, they’ve not scored in five consecutive league games against this opposition (D1, L4).
Milan
After racking up a pair of draws on their opening two Serie A road trips this season, Milan have won three straight away league matches ‘to one,’ including a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Hellas Verona last time out.
Despite lacking their headline forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Pioli’s frontline is performing like clockwork, scoring a league-high 21 goals from open play during the 2022/23 Serie A season.
Much of the credit for Milan’s free-flowing form in the attacking third goes to last season’s MVP award winner Rafael Leao, who has already tallied five goals and four assists.
Torino vs AC Milan Potential Line-ups
Torino (3-4-2-1): Vanja Milinkovic-Savic; Koffi Djidji, Perr Schuurs, Ricardo Rodriguez; Valentino Lazaro, Sasa Lukic, Karol Linetty, Mergim Vojvoda; Nemanja Radonjic, Nikola Vlasic; Pietro Pellegri.
AC Milan (4-2-3-1): Ciprian Tatarusanu; Pierre Kalulu, Fikayo Tomori, Matteo Gabbia, Theo Hernandez; Sandro Tonali, Tommaso Pobega; Ante Rebic, Charles De Ketelaere, Rafael Leao; Divock Origi.
How to Watch?
Torno vs Milan, alongside all other Serie A fixtures, is available to watch online via Serie A live streams.
Torino vs AC Milan Prediction
Though this is unlikely to be another day in the office for Milan, we expect the visitors to live up to their status as pre-match favourites and tighten the noose on pacesetters Napoli.
Torino 0-2 AC Milan
