Matchday 9 for AC Milan approaches as they make a trip to northern Italy, Bologna. The Rossoneri will be facing Sinisa Mihajlovic's men at the Renato Dall'Ara stadium.
Stefano Pioli's team, so far in the Serie A standings, have collected 22 points after 8 games, winning 7 and drawing just one. Il Diavoli represent the third best attacking force in the league (along with Lazio) as they have scored 18 goals so far. They trail behind Napoli (first in stadings with full points) who scored 19 goals while Inter have managed to put the ball past goalkeepers on 23 occasions. Milan's latest outing in the league was versus Hellas Verona in what was a thrilling contest that saw 5 goals overall scored, 3 of which in favour of the Rossoneri's comeback in the second half.
Bologna, on the other hand, are sitting 8th in the league table with 12 points to their names. Sinisa Mihajlovic and his team have a negative record in terms of goals, as they have conceded 15 and scored 13. Their previous game was against Udinese as they drew 1-1 in an away trip to Udine.
Bologna are no walk in the park. They are a decent side who can put a team in difficulty. The ideal game of Sinisa Mihajlovic will be to wait for the opponent's attacks and try to recover the ball and relaunch the ball quickly. His side always tries to play with pace in order to create numerical superiority with counter-attacks, especially by starting on the sides and moving up to the centre.
Milan, however, usually, like to hold the ball whenever they can and attack the goal directly. If the ball is lost, high-pressing is the solution for Stefano Pioli's team.
In this game, it will be fundamental that Fodé Ball-Touré is on top of his game and tries to be attentive as he must fill the void that is temporarily left by Theo Hernandez. That means that the Senegalese full-back will want to support the attack but also be quick to come back in order to defend and try to thwart any counter-attacks initiated by Bologna from his lane.
One of the most important battles are always the midfield in most games, especially in Serie A. This is why Sandro Tonali and Ismael Bennacer are crucial tomorrow for Pioli (because Franck Kessié is not 100% fit). They will have to establish dominance and work hard to recover the ball quickly while catching the other team in a bad position.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be looking to score his 2nd goal of the season and will have to fight with Bologna's 29-year-old centre-back Soumaoro who also has a strong physique.
Simon Kjaer and Alessio Romagnoli, as the latter should start ahead of Fikayo Tomori who needs to rest and catch his breath, will have to work hard in order to keep away the danger that would be coming from talented 22-year-old Gambian forward Musa Barrow. The versatile attacker (who likes to drift wide in-game) has bagged 3 goals already with his team in 8 appearances.
Experienced 32-year-old Marko Arnautovic is also another weapon for Mihajlovic's Bologna who could also start with Musa Barrow. He scored, so far, 4 goals and made 1 assist in 9 games between Serie A and Coppa Italia.
It will be a very tough battle, on paper as Milan has the quality to grab the three points, but Bologna are expected to play with great motivation and focus. Their midfielders will try to mark Pioli's key men and prevent them from finding space.
The Rossoneri are plagued with absences as Mike Maignan, Alessandro Plizzari, Alessandro Florenzi, Theo Hernandez, Franck Kessié, Brahim Diaz, Ante Rebic, Junior Messias and Pietro Pellegri are all set to miss out on this game.
On the other hand, Bologna also have some difficult situations with midfielder Kingsley Michael and defender Kevin Bonifazi ruled out of the game. But, Jerdy Schouten returns from injury and we'll have to see if he will be playing tomorrow from the first minute or not.
Here are the likely choices for the lineup of Bologna:
Skorupski; Soumaoro, Medel, Theate; Silvestri, Dominguez, Svanberg, Hickey; Soriano, Barrow; Arnautovic
As for AC Milan, here is the probable lineup that Pioli could use:
4-2-3-1: Tatarusanu; Calabria, Tomori, Romagnoli, Ballo-Touré; Bennacer, Tonali; Castillejo, Krunic, Leao; Ibrahimovic
