The 2023/24 Serie A season continues, Serie A is another league without a winter break after the Premier League, and this season's Serie A title race is mainly concentrated in the two giants Inter Milan and Juventus, for the Rossoneri AC Milan, since the Champions League group exit, the team has taken the top four as the goal of the season. At 1 a.m. Beijing time on December 31, in a match in the 18th round of Serie A, AC Milan will face Sassuolo at the San Siro Stadium, and Pioli is eager for a victory to consolidate the third place. Due to copyright reasons, CCTV5 will not broadcast the match live.
AC Milan vs. Sassuolo, Pioli has a squad of 533 million euros, with Giroud, Christian Pulisic, Jovic, Rafael Leao, Krunic, Bennacer, Reinders, Te'o, Tomori, Kalulu, Kjaer and other stars. Sassuolo is worth only 158 million euros and has a team of fierce players such as Pinamonti, Berardi, Castillejo, Enrique, and Bayrami. The combined value of the two teams is 791 million euros. The historical record shows that in the last 10 meetings between the two teams, AC Milan has won 5 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses, but has suffered three consecutive defeats at home, and has not won against Sassuolo at home for 4 consecutive seasons.
AC Milan fell into a group of death in the Champions League this season, finishing third in the group and missing out on qualifying for the knockout stages and having to play in the Europa League last-16 play-offs. In Serie A, they were unexpectedly held to a draw away by Salernitana in the last round, and their form has been up and down, and the Rossoneri have dropped too many points against weaker teams. Currently ranked 3rd in the standings with 33 points with 10 wins, 3 draws and 4 losses, in the first 17 rounds of the league, AC Milan scored 31 goals and conceded 20 goals, ranking 2nd in Serie A in terms of goals, ranking 9th in defense, strong in attack and weak in defense, a total of 10 players in the team have scored, of which Giroud has scored 9 goals and 6 assists in all competitions, and is the team's top scorer.
Sassuolo has recently suffered a slump, with 4 consecutive league games without a win, including 3 losses, and this season with 4 wins, 4 draws and 9 losses, 16 points in the standings, only 3 points above the relegation zone, and the relegation situation is grim. In the first 17 rounds of the league, Sassuolo scored 25 goals and conceded 32 goals, ranking 8th in Serie A in terms of goals scored and 19th in defense, with a total of 10 players in the team scoring goals, of which Berardi scored 9 goals and 3 assists, and was the top scorer in the team.
The injury situation of the two teams, AC Milan, Okafor, Moussah, Pobega, Tomori, Kalulu, Gauff, Pellegrini, Sportiello will be out due to injury. For Sassuolo, De Verre, Obiang, Rasic, Poluca, and Viti are injured and unavailable. Judging from the head-to-head records of the two teams, AC Milan only scored 1 point against Sassuolo last season, including a 2-5 defeat at home, and lost to Sassuolo at home for 3 consecutive seasons.
After AC Milan's Champions League exit, Pioli's position has become precarious, and he may be sacked at any time due to poor results. Recently, it is rumored that AC Milan may change hands again, the Saudi consortium may propose to the RedBird Group to buy part of Milan's shares, the team is in the most delicate moment of the season, Pioli needs a victory to reverse the decline, this round of facing the bitter master, AC Milan is difficult to win, this game is optimistic about the two sides to divide the winner.