2/2/20 9 am
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AC Milan is welcoming Hellas Verona to San Siro in part of round 22 of Italian Serie A.
Milan has found a good rhythm as of late and has now won 5 straight games, 3 in Serie A, and 2 in Coppa Italia. Milan is slowly climbing the standings thanks to their current form and is now in 6th place in the Serie A standings with 31 points. The offense was Milan’s biggest problem this season, but since Ibrahimovic arrived at the club, that has started to change, and other players are playing better because of that. In their last Serie A match against Brescia away from home, Milan had 49% of ball possession, 4 shots on goal, 3 corner kicks, and 83% of the correct passes. Overall, a solid game for Milan, after all, it would be foolish to expect more from a team that was struggling for so long. Milan has won this match 0-1 by a goal from Rebic in 71st minute. Rebic was brought to Milan as a desperately needed reinforcement in that Milan’s offense, but he couldn’t seem to get used to the Italian soccer until Ibrahimovic arrived. Since then Rebic has scored a few important goals and assisted for a few and should be in the starting lineup for this game. Hernandez has scored 5 goals for Milan this season, while Piatek who was sold to Hertha in Bundesliga a few days ago has scored 4 goals for Milan. Duarte, Biglia, and Bennancer are injured and will not be playing in this game. Rodriguez and Suso are another two players that left Milan in the last few days, while Laxalt was signed by Milan from Torino. The arrival of Ibrahimovic was so much more than bringing a seasoned striker who can score goals, Milan gained so much more with his experience and his influence on younger players. Clearly a good move by Milan.
Verona is one of the nicest surprises in Serie A this season, and they are still going strong. Verona hasn’t lost any of their last 5 Serie A games and has scored at least 1 goal in all 5 games and was able to keep the clean sheet in 2 of those 5 games. Verona is in 9th place in Serie A standings with 29 points, 25 scored goals, and 22 conceded goals. For a team as small as Verona, their defense has been impressive, but to be honest I’m not sure if Verona can keep up the pace for the whole season. In their last Serie A match against Lecce at home, Verona was impressive with 61% of ball possession, 5 shots on goal, 5 corner kicks, and high 86% of accurate passes. Verona was being dominant since the beginning of this match and has won 3-0. Pazzini, Di Carmine, Verre, and Pessina have all scored 3 goals for Verona so far. Salcedo is the only injured player for Verona. Coach Juric is doing a fantastic job with this team, and his main focus is on having a solid defense, which Verona does, but as I said many times before, without a decent attack and goals, there is no result. Verona might be high in the standings right now, but unless someone doesn’t step up and starts scoring goals for this team, Verona could start dropping points all over the place.
Milan hasn’t lost any of their 9 home games against Verona whose away record this season is 3-2-4. If this was a Milan from 2 months ago, I would side with Verona here, but taking into consideration Milan’s current form, and the fact that they are playing at home, I gotta side with Milan here.
Goran’s Pick Milan -1.5 +175
AUTHOR: Goran Kucar
Follow Goran Kucar on Twitter @GoranKucar