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·22 October 2024
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·22 October 2024
Christian Pulisic is in sensational form for Milan
Milan v Club BruggeTuesday 22 October, 17:45Live on TNT Sports
Valencia let us down, their fans down and frankly themselves down last night, as they somehow contrived to lose 3-2 at home to hapless Las Palmas in La Liga last night. We move on swiftly.
We'll take in some Champions League glamour now, because Milan are in action against Club Brugge, and the Rossoneri really do need to win to kickstart their campaign.
It's been a rock-hard start to the Champions League season for Paulo Fonseca's team. They were outclassed at home by Liverpool, and then were outplayed in a 1-0 defeat at Bayer Leverkusen on Matchday Two. However, there are signs that things are falling into place under the new coach.
Milan's form at San Siro has been impressive. They won the derby against champions Inter (technically they were the away side), and they have reeled off three straight Serie A home victories, keeping clean sheets in all three matches. The weekend's 1-0 victory over Udinese was particularly impressive, as Milan had to play most of the game with ten men after a red card for influential midfielder Tijani Reijnders.
That sense of team spirit has been in contrast to the somewhat stroppy displays of Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao. Hernandez was absurdly sent off in the recent defeat at Fiorentina, while Leao has been maddeningly inconsistent.
Amidst that underperformance, American star Christian Pulisic has emerged as a player that Fonseca can rely on. The former Chelsea and Dortmund player has delivered five goals and three assists in Serie A, and he scored an early goal against Liverpool in the Champions League.
Club Brugge played better than a 3-0 home defeat to Borussia Dortmund on Matchday One suggests, and they recovered with a 1-0 win at Sturm Graz. However, their general away record in the UCL is poor, with just 10 wins in 41 matches and 19 defeats.
Fonseca will restore Rafael Leao and Theo Hernandez to his starting XI, but I'm expecting Pulisic to be the one that stars in a Milan win. We can use the Betfair Sportsbook's Bet Builder to back Milan to win, Pulisic to score or assist and Under 4.5 Goals at a combined price of 19/10. None of Milan's home games this term have featured more than four goals, and they've started to rack up the clean sheets at San Siro.