Overview
Currently 12 points behind Inter Milan, AC Milan almost has no chance to defend the Serie A throne. With a long-term decline in form in recent months, Rossoneri officially giving up the championship to their city rivals seems to be only a matter of time.
In stark contrast, Inter is sublimating with a four-game winning streak, scoring at least 3 goals in each match, and facing a rare domestic double title opportunity. Meanwhile, Milan is struggling to maintain stability.
The red and black striped team has lost 4 of their last 7 matches, and despite just winning 1-0 against Hellas Verona, it is still an unconvincing performance against an opponent struggling to stay in the league. The attack has clearly declined as Milan has only scored an average of one goal per game in the last 10 rounds, partly reflecting the decline in form of Rafael Leao and Christian Pulisic.
However, Massimiliano Allegri can still be proud of his mark since his return. Milan is currently 15 points ahead of the same period last season and has almost completed the minimum goal of winning a Champions League spot. They are 8 points ahead of fifth-placed Como when the season is only 5 rounds away.
In the opposite direction, Juventus is strongly reviving under the leadership of Luciano Spalletti. The Turin team has taken full advantage of the decline of Como and AS Roma to rise to fourth place, while creating a safe 5-point gap.
Even, if they beat Milan, Juventus can completely dream of runner-up positions - something that is hard for anyone to imagine when Spalletti just took over the team in November. Under his leadership, Juventus averaged nearly 2 points per match, far exceeding the 1.5 points under Igor Tudor before that.
Bianconeri's current form is very impressive. They have won 5/6 recent matches in Serie A, conceding only 1 goal, and extended their unbeaten streak in all competitions to 8 after the victory over Bologna.
Although the opportunity to win a Champions League spot is not yet completely certain, Juventus has a basis to be confident when traveling to San Siro. After a 0-0 draw in the first leg in October, they have kept a clean sheet in the last 5 encounters with Milan in Serie A.
Personnel situation
Notably, in the final stage of the season, AC Milan almost has the strongest force in hand.
With all strikers recovering from injuries, Massimiliano Allegri has many options. Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leao have scored 8 and 9 goals in Serie A this season respectively, but both are losing form.
The last time Pulisic scored in Serie A was from the end of December. Since then, the American striker has gone through a streak of 15 goalless matches - his longest in the highest league in Italy. In that context, names like Christopher Nkunku, Niclas Fullkrug and Santiago Gimenez are all ready to compete for two spots in the attack.
On the other side, Juventus also does not have many personnel problems. Luciano Spalletti's team is only missing two names, Juan Cabal and Arkadiusz Milik, while Dusan Vlahovic is still unlikely to return in time.
The good news is that a series of players such as Mattia Perin, Khephren Thuram, Emil Holm and Vasilije Adzic have returned to full training and are ready to participate.
Most notably, young talent Kenan Yildiz is expected to recover from his knee injury in time to play, bringing more creativity to Juventus' attack.
Expected lineup:
AC Milan: Maignan, Tomori, Gabbia, Pavlovic, Saelemaekers, Fofana, Modric, Rabiot, Bartesaghi, Pulisic, Leao.
Juventus: Di Gregorio, Kalulu, Bremer, Kelly, Cambiaso, Thuram, Locatelli, Conceicao, McKennie, Yildiz, David.
The match between AC Milan and Juventus takes place at 1:45 a.m. on April 27 (Vietnam time).
