Coppa Italia preview: AC Milan vs. Sassuolo – Team news, opposition insight, stats and prediction

SempreMilan

·2 December 2024

Coppa Italia preview: AC Milan vs. Sassuolo – Team news, opposition insight, stats and prediction

AC Milan will begin their 2024-25 Coppa Italia campaign on Tuesday night at San Siro as they take on Serie B table-toppers Sassuolo.

Milan are buoyed by back-to-back wins in the Champions League and Serie A against Slovan Bratislava and Empoli, though a big test away from home against Atalanta looms on Friday.

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Thus, the head coach Paulo Fonseca has some decisions to make when it comes to selections, and he admitted as much in his pre-match interview with Milan TV.

Game date: Tuesday, December 3 Kick-off time: 21:00 (CET) Venue: San Siro Referee: Kevin Bonacina (VAR: Nasca)

Team news

The situation that Milan face in the next few days certainly suggests the cup tie with Sassuolo will not be given priority. On Friday there is a game against Atalanta away from home and some starters need to catch their breath a bit.

Nonetheless, the fans believe that the Coppa Italia must be a concrete objective and therefore the squad must too. Taking to the field with the wrong attitude and spirit could make it an embarrassing night, given Sassuolo have stung Milan before and are top of Serie B.

The Coppa Italia is a trophy that Milan haven’t won for 21 years. The last time was back in 2002-03 when Carlo Ancelotti was in charge, as a 6-3 aggregate win over Roma came shortly after lifting the Champions League in Manchester against Juventus.

That is why Fonseca will have to give the right motivation to his team also because the domestic cup could be the ‘easiest’ trophy to win for Milan this year. The Scudetto or the Champions League are not yet currently realistic, and the Supercoppa in the Middle East will be a January lottery.

In terms of team news, the three known absences for this game are Luka Jovic, Ismael Bennacer and Alessandro Florenzi. All three are currently recovering from respective back, calf and knee operations, with the first two due back in the next 4-6 weeks.

There are two more to add to the list though, and two high-profile players in Mike Maignan and Theo Hernandez. The French duo will both miss the game as per Sky as the goalkeeper has undergone a ‘minor dental surgery’, whereas Theo suffered a bruised foot at the weekend.

The same broadcaster are reporting that Marco Sportiello will be between the posts with Filippo Terracciano filling in at left-back. Davide Calabria, Fikayo Tomori and Strahinja Pavlovic should complete the back four.

There will be no rest for Youssouf Fofana and Tijjani Reijnders in midfield it seems, though Samuel Chukwueze, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Noah Okafor could start behind Tammy Abraham in what would be a rotated attacking group.

Predicted Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Sportiello; Calabria, Tomori, Pavlovic, Terracciano; Fofana, Reijnders; Chukwueze, Loftus-Cheek, Leao/Okafor; Abraham.

The opponents

Last season was a disastrous one for Sassuolo in many ways. After finishing a comfortable 13th in 2022-23, they ended up with three head coaches and a relegation to show for it.

Alessio Dionisi was in charge until 25 February but was sacked after they dropped into the relegation places for the first time. Emiliano Bigica did no better as a brief caretaker, then Davide Ballardini came in.

The Neroverdi lost 11 of 14 games in the league from the start of December to the start of March and they would ultimately never recover. They were condemned to relegation in 19th place after 2-0 loss at home to Cagliari in the penultimate round.

Italy’s 2006 World Cup hero Fabio Grosso was named the new head coach, and rather predictably there was an exodus. Matheus Henrique, Martin Erlic, Nedim Bajrami, Georgios Kyriakopoulos and Ryan Flamingo all left, generating over €25m in revenues.

Davide Frattesi’s loan to Inter was turned into a permanent for €31.4m too, while Maxime Lopez, Andrea Pinamonti, Gian Marco Ferrari and Gregoire Defrel all departed too.

Sassuolo spent money on winger Nicholas Pierini, centre-back Car Odenthal plus the midfield duo Edoardo Iannoni and Fabrizio Caligara. Matteo Lovato and Horatiu Moldovan arrived on loan.

Grosso’s team have certainly started the season well with 10 wins, four draws and one defeat from their first 15 games, opening up a three-point gap over Pisa in top spot.

Head to head

AC Milan have faced Sassuolo in 23 competitive matches throughout their almost 125-year history, with 12 wins, four draws and seven defeats producing a 52.2% win ratio.

The early iterations of the fixture were intriguing as the Rossoneri and Neroverdi alternated wins for the first eight games from January 2014 to November 2016.

Domenico Berardi scored four in the first ever meeting with Sassuolo winning 4-3 in the game that ended up getting Max Allegri sacked. The only time the two have faced each other in the cup was at the same stage in 2014-15, with Milan emerging 2-1 winners at San Siro.

Christian Pulisic scored the only goal in the league game at the Meazza last season. At the Mapei Stadium it was a 3-3 draw as Luka Jovic and Noah Okafor got Stefano Pioli’s team a point from 3-1 down.

Key facts and stats

➤ Milan have conceded 2 or more goals in 11 of their last 20 matches.

➤ Sassuolo have not lost any of their last 12 matches and have won 8 of their past 10 away games.

➤ Sassuolo have scored 2 or more goals in 7 of their past 10 away matches and have kept 7 clean sheets in their past 10 away games.

➤ Fabio Grosso has faced the Rossoneri 20 times in his career but has only four wins – one of which came in Coppa Italia.

➤ Since 2020, Milan have scored in all but one of the meetings between the two sides.

➤ Domenico Berardi is this fixture’s all-time top goalscorer – he has scored 11 against the Rossoneri in 20 meetings with another seven assists.

➤ In the past five meetings, there have been seven goals from seven different goal scorers for the Diavolo.

➤ Fonseca has only won one game against Sassuolo in four attempts – he has not won any of his last three against the Neroverdi.

Ones to watch

There will be several ‘back-up’ players looking to prove a point for Milan. Loftus-Cheek has not been in good form this season so must show he can still play a valuable role, while the same can be said for Chukwueze, and Abraham must score with more frequency.

Opportunities appear likely for Terracciano and Sportiello in the rearguard, and the centre-back pairing of Tomori and Pavlovic will hope to put Fonseca under even more pressure to pick a pairing and stick with it.

Photo by Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images

Berardi has scored 11 goals against the Rossoneri in his career, with the first four coming in the first meeting between the sides over 10 years ago. Paolo Maldini actually wanted him in summer 2023 before being sacked, and he has three goals at San Siro against Milan.

Lauriente is someone the Diavolo know well too given he scored twice when these teams last met in April. Boloca is the anchor man and star of the midfield, while the now-veteran Toljan is always a threat going forward from full-back.

Prediction

This is very unlikely to be a walkover given the form Sassuolo are in and the firepower they still boast, especially with Milan rotating a bit. However, to get dumped out at this stage would be unacceptable, given the cup success drought too.

Milan 2-1 Sassuolo