Overview
After creating a boost with two victories against Inter in Milan derbies, AC Milan's 2025-2026 season quickly declined. While the city rivals advanced straight to the Serie A championship, Rossoneri declined in the decisive stage.
Milan lost 6 out of 10 last matches of the season in Serie A, thereby missing the opportunity to win a Champions League spot. This result led to a series of changes in the leadership and coaching staff.
Max Allegri only had one season in his second term before leaving. Milan then appointed Ruben Amorim with the expectation of putting the team back on track, while making many personnel adjustments.
Amorim started his job with a 2-2 draw against Celtic, followed by a draw against Inter in Australia, a defeat to Chelsea and a victory against Manchester United. Friendly matches helped the Portuguese coach have more time to test tactics as well as assemble new players.
Goncalo Ramos, Milan's most expensive signing in history, is one of the new factors expected to make a difference. After the testing phase, Amorim will have to prove his ability when the official season begins with a away match against Torino.
Milan's away record last season brought some confidence. Rossoneri won 11 out of 19 away matches in Serie A, including a 3-2 comeback victory over Torino. Amorim certainly wants to recreate this result in the opening match of the new season.
Torino has a fairly good home record against Milan when they have only lost 2 in the last 13 times hosting opponents. One of the two defeats was a heavy 0-7 defeat, and the most recent match took place in December last year.
Last season, Torino faced many difficulties at home before Roberto D'Aversa appeared as interim coach. He helped this team improve their performance and complete the relegation target.
Torino closed the season with a draw against Juventus in the final round. Previously, they had gone through the last 6 home matches without losing, winning 14 points and scoring at least 2 goals in each match.
Torino finished 12th, but D'Aversa then left the team. Ignazio Abate was appointed as a replacement and had to start the task of improving the defense, which was among the weakest in Serie A last season.
Abate has had quite good preparation before the season. Torino defeated Burnley, Vado and Avellino respectively, before overcoming Carrarese in the Coppa Italy to qualify for the second round.
Personnel situation
Milan can give debut opportunities to three rookies Diego Moreira, Mario Gila and Goncalo Ramos. Among these, Ramos is likely to be ranked as the main striker.
On Torino's side, Ignazio Abate is likely to use a similar system. This is the formation he applied in the match against Carrarese in the Coppa Italia as well as most pre-season friendly matches.
Expected lineup:
Torino: Mascardi, Comuzzo, Comert, Coco, Pedersen, Fitz-Jim, Gineitis, Cacciamani, Vlasic, Casadei, Simeone.
AC Milan: Maignan, De Winter, Gila, Pavlovic, Chukwueze, Modric, Rabiot, Bartesaghi, Loftus-Cheek, Saelemaekers, Ramos.
The match between Torino and AC Milan takes place at 1:45 a.m. on August 24 (Vietnam time).
