When looking ahead to this fixture between AC Milan and Lazio at the start of the campaign, it was the hosts who were expected to be the team challenging at the top of Serie A, at least competing for a place in the Champions League.
However, AC Milan come into this match in 7th place in the league, 3 points behind 6th place Sampdoria who currently occupy the final Europa League position. AC Milan are 12 points off Inter Milan, who are 4th and occupy the last Champions League qualifying place.
Lazio on the other hand are enjoying a good season and start this match 15 points better off then their hosts. They are 6 points behind second place Juventus and 8 points adrift of league leaders Napoli.
Ac Milan have had a poor season, especially compared to what was expected of them this campaign. However, they have remained undefeated in their last four matches in all competitions, winning three and drawing one.
There have been victories over Crotone and Cagliari in Serie A plus an excellent 1-0 win over Inter Milan in the Coppa Italia. The draw came against Fiorentina in Florence, a match that ended 1-1 in Serie A.
The main problem in recent league games for AC Milan has come at home and they have been struggling to score goals. Trends show they have failed to score a goal in five of their last seven home Serie A matches and that’s a very disappointing record.
Lazio make the trip to the San Siro having comfortably won their game in hand against Udinese on Wednesday night. The match ended 3-0 in favour of Lazio and there was little doubt they were going to get anything other than maximum points.
Lazio are one of the in-form teams in Serie A right now and have remained undefeated in their last eight matches in all competitions. There have been wins over Crotone, SPAL, Chievo Verona and Udinese in Serie A and against Cittadella and Fiorentina in the Coppa Italia.
The most exciting aspect of Lazio’s play has been their attack and they have scored 13 goals in their last three matches and an average of 2.55 goals in their away Serie A games this season. Lazio are the top scorers in the league this season and over 2.5 goals have been seen in all but one of their last sixteen away Serie A games.
Team news and AC Milan will be without left-back Ricardo Rodriguez, who is suspended and Davide Calabria is expected to come into the team. Both Andrea Conti and Marco Storari are injured and will miss the match.
Lazio will be hoping Ciro Immobile is fit to take his place in the starting XI but may not be risked if he is anything but 100%. Davide Di Gennaro is injured and will miss out but Martin Caceres could make his debut.
The potential loss of Immobile will hurt Lazio but they coped well without him in the recent 3-0 win against Udinese. One thing we should see in this game is over 2.5 goals and do not be surprised to see Lazio get the majority of those goals and win the match.