The journey to defend the Scudetto trophy starts with AC Milan hosting Udinese at the San Siro with over 70 thousand fans in the stands. After a summer full of celebrations, long mercato negotiations and important preparations, head coach Stefano Pioli will be eyeing 3 points. This time, he welcomes the additions of Yacine Adli, Divock Origi and Charles De Ketelaere.
The match will be no walk in the park for Stefano Pioli's boys. On paper, the Rossoneri have the advantage but on the field, everything changes. Udinese are a tough team to crack and that was certainly the case. In fact, the Udinese (with Juventus) are the only outfits that AC Milan did not manage to beat in the previous Serie A season. Hopefully, the red and black faithful will be able to get their the points against Luca Gotti's team.
In the starting lineup, Stefano Pioli may be more likely to use Brahim Diaz as the playmaker as Charles De Ketelaere is expected to be sitting on the bench, watching on, and perhaps ready to enter when called upon.
Udinese, on the other hand, will try to be compact and use the physicality of their defence and midfield especially to break up the plays initiated by AC Milan. Here is the possible lineup of Luca Gotti's team:
3-5-2: Silvestri; Becao, Nuytinck, Perez; Soppy, Makengo, Walace, Pereyra, Udogie; Deulofeu, Beto.
The hosts, however, will play with the following lineup:
4-2-3-1: Maignan; Calabria, Kalulu, Tomori, Hernandez; Bennacer, Krunic; Leao, Diaz, Messias; Rebic.
Olivier Giroud has muscle fatigue and should not start. Sandro Tonali is injured and should skip the game. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is obviously out and should return in January 2023.
