The first leg of the Coppa Italia semi-final takes place this week and the pick of the matches sees Lazio head back to the San Siro to play AC Milan.
These two met in Serie A on Sunday evening in a superb contest which the hosts won 2-1. It was a big win for AC Milan and their manager Gennaro Gattuso, who was happy to celebrate on the pitch with his players.
Lazio will be disappointed they did not take something from the game as they aim to finish in the Champions League qualifying positions and will see this match as the perfect opportunity to get revenge.
Trends show AC Milan come into this match on a five-match unbeaten run. Four of those games have ended in wins and AC Milan have defeated Crotone, Cagliari and Lazio in Serie A plus Inter Milan, their city rivals, in the Coppa Italia.
It was the win over Inter Milan in the Coppa Italia which has sparked this excellent run of form for AC Milan and they have started to tighten things up at the back.
In their last five games in all competitions, they have kept two clean sheets and conceded only 3 goals. This contrasts with the matches prior to the win over Inter Milan, which saw AC Milan concede 5 goals in just two matches without scoring a single goal themselves.
Having claimed their first win against a team above them in the Serie A table this season, they will be hoping to make it back-to-back wins against high-flying Lazio.
Simone Inzaghi will return to the San Siro with his Lazio team hoping for a more positive result. His team were not poor against AC Milan on the weekend but did not take their chances and could easily have come away with a point.
This will give Lazio encouragement they can at least get a draw from this game to take back with them for the second leg in Rome.
The defeat on Sunday was Lazio’s first in nine matches in all competitions and will come as a shock to the system having enjoyed a great run of results. However, despite losing the game, Lazio still managed to score a goal and they have netted 14 goals in their last four matches and could have had more than one at the weekend.
Both teams have scored in ten of Lazio’s last eleven away matches in all competitions.
Team news and AC Milan are expected to keep a similar starting XI to that of the weekend but Ricardo Rodriguez could come in at left-back. There is a doubt over central defender Leonardo Bonucci, who was struggling on Sunday.
Lazio will be without Adam Marusic who picked up an injury and he likely to be replaced by Dusan Basta. Both Felipe Anderson and Nani will be hoping to start the match having been on the bench at the weekend.
Both teams to score seems like the best option here but there should be little to separate the teams and the tie could be level going into the second leg.