AC Milan vs AS Roma prediction: ITALY: Serie A betting tips on match 2024-01-13 19:45.
It has been a rather frustrating week for AC Milan, who were knocked out of the Coppa Italia in a fiery quarter-final home encounter with Atalanta in midweek. With one domestic honour in the rear-view mirror, cutting the nine-point gap at the beginning of the round to league leaders and city rivals Inter Milan may be an ambitious aim, but not an impossible one for a Milan side chasing a 20th Scudetto.
Theyâre certainly pushing hard to hunt down the top two, as only Juventus and Inter themselves have picked up more points (17) than Milanâs 16 across the previous seven Serie A rounds (W5, D1, L1). That return could improve here if they can extend their five-game unbeaten run of home H2Hs against Roma (W3, D2), but given each of the last seven H2Hs at any venue have seen both teams score, Milanâs attack will need to be firing on all cylinders.
Roma also had to swallow the bitter pill of a Coppa Italia quarter-final exit in midweek, although theirs was arguably even worse than Milanâs as they lost out 1-0 to fierce city rivals Lazio. That game produced three red cards in second-half stoppage time, with two of those going to Roma – the type of performance they need to avoid in their push for the top-four positions.
On the back of consecutive travelling defeats âto nilâ in Serie A action, Roma head to Milan on a downer, but not since 2021 have they lost three straight Serie A away games, whilst youâd have to go all the way back to 2005 to find their last run of three away defeats without scoring! Thereâs some encouragement they can at least end their scoring drought here, as only three sides have failed to score in fewer league games at any venue than Romaâs four ahead of this round, while theyâve netted in 18 of their last 20 visits to AC Milan, avoiding defeat 13 times (W7, D6, L7).
Players to watch: Milanâs Olivier Giroud enters this clash in fine fettle after making goal contributions in four of his last five league appearances (G2, A2), while he also scored a penalty in the reverse fixture. With Paulo Dybala now out injured, extra pressure falls on Romelu Lukaku (G14, A2), who has seen three of his last five goals serve as the match opener.
Hot stat: Roma boss JosĂ© Mourinho has faced no opposition manager more than Milanâs Stefano Pioli without ever winning a game (D2, L3).