The five key battles that could win or lose the game for Milan against Atalanta | OneFootball

AC Milan face perhaps their biggest litmus test of the season so far as they make the short trip to Bergamo to face high-flying Atalanta.

Milan are looking and no doubt feeling much better after victories over Slovan Bratislava, Empoli and Sassuolo, but facing Atalanta is a very different proposition given they have won eight in the spin.

In many ways this is a moment of truth to see how much the Rossoneri have progressed, given La Dea are second and on a roll. The results speak for themselves: 5-1 against Genoa, 6-1 against Verona, 3-0 against Napoli away from home and most recently a 2-0 win at Roma.

The five key battles

As Arrigo Sacchi highlighted in his pre-match analysis, the key for Milan will be to stay narrow and compact as a unit, to reduce the space available to the Atalanta forwards.

With that, we come to the first duel. Ademola Lookman is on fire with seven goals and four assists in the league already this season, and he is among the Serie A players with the most goal contributions (30, 19G + 11A) in the calendar year of 2024.

The Nigeria international is expected to partner Charles De Ketelaere up front, and that means Matteo Gabbia should be tasked with nullifying him. It will be a tough examination for the Italian defender, but he has been in excellent form this year too so will aim to continue that.

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Moving to the midfield, a lot has been written about the battle between Tijjani Reijnders and Ederson, given how important they both are. However, positionally it will be Reijnders’ compatriot Marten De Roon that he sees the most of.

Both players are in fine form: the Milan star has six goals in his last eight games and is on course to smash last season’s numbers, while the Atalanta man has scored three times in the league including the winner against Roma (and the MVP award) on Monday night.

One of the surprise packages of the season so far for Atalanta has been Odilon Kossounou, who arrived in the summer on loan from Bayer Leverkusen. He has racked up 10 appearances across Serie A and the Champions League, and has now established himself as a starter on the right of the back three.

That means he will come up against Rafael Leao, who continues to show excellent signs playing in his new more central role, almost as a second striker. His runs off the shoulder of the last man have caused big issues in the last few weeks, but against the Ivorian he will face a physical battle too.

Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images

One of the most intriguing tussles will come down Milan’s left side, with Theo Hernandez meeting Raoul Bellanova again. Bellanova – a former Rossoneri youth player – has already hurt his old club this season, rising to head a cross at the far post that led to Torino’s opener at San Siro in round one.

He then joined La Dea before the window closed and his four goal contributions this season show that he still likes to cover the entire flank. So does Theo, though, and there are calls for him to deliver a big performance to remind us of the levels that the Frenchman is capable of.

It really could be a piece with 10 outfield battles, so honourable mentions must go to the ones between De Ketelaere and Malick Thiaw, Youssouf Fofana and Pasalic plus Morata against Hien. However, we end with Ederson versus Yunus Musah.

It is likely that Atalanta will do what others have done this season and target Milan’s right side. Musah has already shown that he can cover ground in his new ‘hybrid’ role, and at times in this game he will have to tuck into midfield to follow the Brazilian all-rounder. That would give safety in numbers in central areas, but he will also have to track Daniele Ruggeri’s runs from left wing-back too.