AC Milan vs Lazio

January 30, 2018
By: Milos Markovic

The first leg of the Coppa Italia semi-final tie will see AC Milan lock horns with the high-flying Lazio side for the second time in less than a week’s time. Rino Gattuso’s Rossoneri will hope to extend their five-match unbeaten run in all competitions and take another important Cup scalp after beating Inter Milan in the previous round of the competition.

Gennaro Gattuso’s spirit starts to shine through AC Milan

In what has widely been interpreted as a desperate move by the AC Milan hierarchy, Gennaro Gattuso was appointed AC Milan boss despite the fact he lacks managerial experience and tactical knowledge needed to lead a top-side such as Rossoneri.

Despite the lack of the obvious, AC Milan top-office management hoped Rino Gattuso’s man management skills and his famous die-hard spirit would be more than enough to shake things up and wake up the groggy Rossoneri.  Albeit quite surprising and shocking, decision to appoint Gattuso seems to be paying dividends for now. The five-match unbeaten run in all competition serves as the biggest proof of Gattuso’s influence with their 2-1 win over Lazio last time out sitting as a cherry on top. Patrick Cutrone opened the scoring whereas Giacomo Bonaventura settled a tight contest at San Siro with a bullet header for a vital victory last weekend. Rossoneri defied the odds to beat the high-flying Lazio side but will have to find more strength within themselves to repeat the coup once again with Biancocelesti coming back for another run, this time in Coppa Italia.

Rino Gattuso will have all of his players at disposal, with the exception of right-back Andrea Conti who is suffering from a cruciate ligament injury that’s likely to keep him out of contention until March.

Lackluster Lazio

Lazio travelled to the city of Milano is a superb form, scoring 13 goals in three games as they moved to third in the Serie A standings. Huge fifteen points in front of AC Milan made little difference however as Biancocelesti failed to extend their three-match winning run and ended up suffering their first defeat since 11th December.

The absence of the 26-goal top-scorer Ciro Immobile proved to be crucial for Lazio who struggled to create anything until Marusic’s leveller. Lazio’s best player this season Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, whose exploits carried Biancocelesti on numerous occasions this season, threatened on a couple of occasions but the things simply went against Lazio, for their fourth defeat of the season. Inzaghi’s men will be keen to bounce back immediately and set the record straight despite it’s only the first leg of the Coppa Italia semifinal leg. High-scoring Lazio side have been putting in fantastic displays throughout the season and we should definitely expect them to get back to their usual ways of high-tempo, eye-pleasing football. But will it be enough for a win over revitalized Milan?

Ciro Immobile continues to miss out due to his hamstring injury, while the guests will also be without Davide Di Gennaro. Marchetti and Perea are suspended and will sit through this game.

Verdict

The forthcoming Coppa Italia clash will see two highly determined sides lock horns in what’s likely to be a highly-entertaining affair. With Serie A both teams’ priority this term, both AC Milan and Lazio could choose to make a couple of changes to their team and predicting the final score here is highly tricky.

Top pick: Both teams to score – Yes   1.77 (10/13) @10Bet

Alternative pick 1: Draw   3.35 (40/17) @188Bet

Alternative pick 2: Under 2.5 goals   1.86 (6/7) @Unibet

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