AC Milan vs Torino

AC Milan’s stuttering defending Serie A campaign continues this weekend as they welcome seventh-placed Torino to the Stadio San Siro.

Last weekend’s 1-0 Derby della Madonnina loss to arch-rivals Inter Milan condemned AC Milan to a third consecutive defeat in Serie A, putting their hopes of winning back-to-back titles for the first time since 1994 to bed. All competitions included, ‘I Rossoneri’ have lost four consecutive games for the first time since 2017, while their winless run in Serie A now stands at five matches (D2, L3). At home, Stefano Pioli’s men have failed to win both top-flight outings in 2023 (D1, L1), including an embarrassing 5-2 defeat to bottom-half Sassuolo last time out. The recent H2H stakes don’t change the picture much, with Milan going winless in their last three competitive encounters against Torino (D1, L2), including a 2-1 defeat in the reverse fixture in October.

Unlike their hosts, Torino should take the field in a buoyant mood after alternating between winning (2) and drawing (1) in their last three league outings. With three of their four most recent top-flight fixtures featuring an identical 1-0 scoreline (W2, D1, L1), scoring first could be of the utmost importance. Moreover, the visitors are unbeaten in their last four Serie A matches away from home (W1, D3), which is not necessarily encouraging, given that they’ve opened the scoring three times in that run. A narrow 1-0 win at Udinese last weekend took Torino’s points tally for the season to 30 in 21 matches, their second-best haul at this stage of a top-flight campaign in a three-point-per-win era.