Serie A preview: AC Milan vs. Salernitana – Team news, opposition insight, stats and prediction | OneFootball

AC Milan will bring their 2023-24 season to a close on Saturday night as they face off against Salernitana in what will be a night of farewells at San Siro.

It has already been confirmed that Olivier Giroud and Simon Kjaer will leave when their contracts expire meaning they will get a great send-off, while Stefano Pioli’s farewell was also confirmed on Friday.

There was no pre-match press conference from Pioli on the eve of the game, but the game will give the chance for Pioli to say farewell to the Milan fans and vice versa, while we will also see the 2024-25 kit for the first time in a game.

Game date: Saturday, May 25Kick-off time: 20:45 (CEST)Venue: San SiroReferee: Davide Di Marco (VAR: Nasca)

Team news

Milan were way off the pace during their last league outing against Torino, with Zapata, Ilic and Rodriguez scoring to put the home side 3-0 up just after half-time before Ismael Bennacer’s consolation from the penalty spot.

The main injury news is that Mike Maignan suffered yet another injury in training which means he will almost certainly miss the final game of the season. He dislocated his finger but avoided a fracture, so he will be able to jet off for the European Championship with France.

The other selection issue is that Samuel Chukwueze will not be available. He came off during the recent 5-1 win over Cagliari and was diagnosed with a muscle issue that has prematurely ended his season.

According to the latest from Sky (as seen below), Pioli’s last Milan starting line-up is expected to consist of Marco Sportiello in goal with Davide Calabria, Fikayo Tomori, Matteo Gabbia and Theo Hernandez as the back four.

They believe that a midfield three will be deployed with Tijjani Reijnders flanked by Yunus Musah to his right and Ismael Bennacer to his left.

Then, the attacking trident is expected to be Christian Pulisic on the right wing, Rafael Leao on the opposite flank and Olivier Giroud as the striker, meaning he will start his last game for the club.

Predicted Milan XI (4-3-3): Sportiello; Calabria, Tomori, Gabbia, Theo Hernandez; Musah, Reijnders, Bennacer; Pulisic, Giroud, Leao.

The opponents

Last season was Salernitana’s second consecutive campaign in the top flight of Italian football and they stayed up a lot more comfortably than in their first, eventually finishing 11 points above the relegation places.

We recapped the business that they did over the summer during our preview before the reverse game back in December, and it would be fair to say that 2023-24 has not gone as planned for them given they are 18 points adrift of safety and were relegated weeks ago.

Salernitana are currently battling a number of different injury problems, with Jerome Boating, Guillermo Ochoa, Domagoj Barbaric, Iron Gomis, Agustin Martegani, Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi and Federico Fazio all out. Toma Basic will also serve a suspension.

They are expected to play a 3-4-2-1 system with Simy leading the line and Candreva plus Tchaouna in support as the attacking midfielders.

Sambia and Zanoli are down as the right and left wing-backs respectively, operating either side of a midfield double pivot which is tipped to be Coulibaly and Maggiore.

Pierozzi, Gyomber and the Milan loanee Pellegrino are expected to be the three-man defence in front of Fiorillo as the Granata look to spring a surprise before exiting the league.

Predicted Salernitana XI (3-4-2-1): Fiorillo; Pierozzi, Gyomber, Pellegrino; Sambia, Coulibaly, Maggiore, Zanoli; Tchaouna, Candreva; Simy.

Head to head

Milan have only played against Salernitana nine times in their history across all competitions, winning five of them with three draws and just one defeat.

The first two meetings between the clubs came back in the 1947-48 season in Serie A, with Milan winning 2-0 at San Siro before being beaten 4-3 away in the final round.

This season a brilliant game was played in the reverse fixture at the Arechi. Fikayo Tomori’s header gave the Rossoneri a 1-0 lead but Fazio and Candreva turned the game on its head before Luka Jovic levelled it late on.

Match facts…

➤ Milan are unbeaten in eight (W5 D3) of their nine Serie A games against Salernitana, although they have drawn three of their four (W1) most recent league matches against this opponent.

➤ Salernitana are winless in each of their four Serie A away games (D1 L3) against AC Milan and in general San Siro is the Stadium in which the Campani have played the most meetings in the competition without ever winning (9: D1 L8).

➤ Among the teams against which AC Milan have always scored in Serie A, only against Pescara (14), Pro Vercelli (12) and Messina (10) have the Rossoneri played more games than against Salernitana (9).

➤ Milan have only won one of their last six league games (D3 L2), after winning each of their previous five; furthermore, following their defeat against Torino, the Rossoneri could lose back-to-back Serie A games for the first time since February 2023 (three in that case).

➤ Salernitana are the fourth non-newly promoted team in Serie A history to lose at least 25 matches in a single top-flight season (W2 D10 L25 in Serie A in 2023-24), after Triestina in 1946-47 (25), SPAL in 2019-20 (28) and Sampdoria in 2022-23 (25).

➤ Milan have won their final game of a Serie A season in each of the last six campaigns (also always ahead at half-time): already their longest such streak in the competition.

➤ Stefano Pioli is the manager with the fourth-most wins as AC Milan coach in Serie A: 108, behind Carlo Ancelotti (163), Nereo Rocco (120) and Fabio Capello (110); furthermore, he is the second AC Milan manager overall in terms of win percentage in the competition: 59%, only behind Lajos Czeizler (64%).

➤ Over the last five Serie A seasons (since 2019/20), Théo Hernández is the defender who has been directly involved in the most goals (48), who has completed the most dribbles (232) and who has made the most total carries (2571). Furthermore, he has won 99 games in the top-flight (level with Giovanni Di Lorenzo): in the period, only less than Alessandro Bastoni among defenders (100).

➤ Olivier Giroud has scored the most goals in Serie A for AC Milan after turning 34: 38 (ahead of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s 34); considering all foreign players in top-flight history, only Cristiano Ronaldo (64) and Miroslav Klose (42) have netted more.

➤ Giulio Maggiore is one of the three Italian players who have been directly involved in at least five goals in Serie A from the start of March onwards, alongside with Gianluca Scamacca (eight) and Riccardo Calafiori (five): three goals and two assists in the period for the Salernitana midfielder.

Ones to watch

Obviously all eyes will be on Pioli to deliver one last victory in front of a Curva that will sing his name, while Giroud can actually reach 50 goals for Milan if he scores a brace so we could potentially expect to see him get given any penalties that might arrive.

On a more worrying note, given the unpredictable nature of football there are some players who might unknowingly be playing their last Milan games. There are rumours of interest from abroad in Maignan, Theo, Bennacer and Leao, for example.

Candreva has been the shining light for Salernitana in what has been an otherwise miserable season as he has 12 goal contributions in Serie A, perfectly split with six goals and six assists.

Tchaouna and Maggiore follow that with four goals each, while the former has three assists and the latter two, but aside from that they have really struggled for goals. Coulibaly is the engine in the middle of the park, while Gyomber is by now a veteran Serie A defender.

Prediction

With both teams having nothing to play for other than pride, we feel like Milan will want to give Pioli the send-off that he deserves in front of the home fans, and backing Giroud and Kjaer to score might be worth a go as well.

Milan 3-0 Salernitana