After suffering their second-straight away defeat and falling to a late 1-0 defeat at Napoli, AC Milan will be looking to bounce back and secure their third consecutive home win against Udinese. The Rossoneri have dominated Udinese in recent years, having not lost to them since November 4, 2023, and they'll be aiming to continue that pattern on Saturday.
Since then, Milan have won 3-2 and 1-0 -- despite playing down a man for over an hour in the latter -- before thrashing them 4-0 courtesy of goals from Rafael Leão, Strahinja Pavlović, Theo Hernández and Tijjani Reijnders. Despite losing the latter two players, Milan have enjoyed a fairly strong campaign under new manager Max Allegri, with the Diavolo challenging eternal rivals Inter for the Scudetto until dropping off in the past few months.
They were ruthless in their destruction of Udinese in September, with a brace from Christian Pulisic and a goal from Youssouf Fofana completing a 3-0 demolition. But as far as Udinese captain Jesper Karlström is concerned, their recent head-to-head record is nothing more than a number on a sheet of paper.
“We’re trying not to focus on our history against Milan. It’s a new game, and we feel confident because of the last games we’ve had,” stated Karlström in an exclusive R.Org interview. “Okay, we lost against Juventus last month – where we played quite well in that game – but other than that, we’ve been playing well in these past five games, and we feel like we’re in good shape."
"The message from the coach is that we can go there and do something, and tomorrow we will go through more tactical things. But I think the most important thing for us is to keep this confidence that we have, and to be ready to do something great on Saturday.”
Udinese have been a force to be reckoned with in recent weeks, having avoided defeat in four of their last five, and Karlström has been a vital part of this. After leading Sweden to World Cup qualification, Karlström held his own in midfield as Udinese came away with a 0-0 draw against Como. Now, he'll be looking to come out on top against one of the greatest midfielders of all time: Luka Modrić.
“Modrić is one of the toughest opponents that I’ve faced, but I also like Juventus’ Manuel Locatelli and Inter’s Piotr Zieliński very much," added Karlström. "But honestly, I don’t think so much about the individual battle against Modrić. Of course, I know we’re facing him as well as a lot of good players in Milan, so I think my focus is to perform well myself, and then as a team, for us to be ready. That’s the main target. I need to be on my best day, and also as a team, we need to be on a good day to stop him and to stop Milan in general.”
