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

AC Milan and Cagliari will square off at Unipol Domus later today, with the Rossoneri hoping to build on their win against Real Madrid. As always, there are five key battles that we should keep an extra eye on.

Paulo Fonseca made it clear that tonight’s game won’t be easy for Milan despite the mid-week win, as Cagliari fundamentally play a completely different football. It’s a style that could be more difficult for the Rossoneri to face, the manager believes.

In any case, assuming that Cagliari will be relatively defensive-minded, there are a few key battles that come to mind. Of course, Milan also need to be careful in their own defence, where there are some weapons for the home side.

The key battles

Starting at the back from Milan’s perspective, Emerson Royal caused a penalty against Real Madrid and will be up against Zito Luvumbo tonight. The Angola international is quite fast and tends to be a pain for his opponents, so the Brazilian needs to be on his toes.

In the centre of the defence, Roberto Piccoli will be looking to use his size in the aerial duels and serving as Malick Thiaw is very strong here, he will surely target Fikayo Tomori. The Englishman is not bad in the air, but has made more positional errors in recent months.

Further up the pitch, Tijjani Reijnders will be looking to roam just like had did against Real Madrid. Assuming that he will be more on the left-hand side, it will be Antoine Makoumbou‘s job to shut down his paths tonight.

Photo by Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images

Speaking of the left flank, Rafael Leao showed his qualities vs. Real Madrid and the hope is now that he can find the back of the net. He will be up against Gabriele Zappa, who is relatively fast and might put up a good fight.

Finally, and this is the big one, the 16-year-old Francesco Camarda will be up against the experienced 28-year-old Sebastiano Luperto. The latter is very big and strong, so it could be a difficult night for Camarda at least in the aerial duels.