AC Milan vs Sampdoria prediction: ITALY: Serie A betting tips on match 2023-05-19 18:45.
A season that promised so much for AC Milan threatens to deliver very little after a disappointing 2-0 Serie A (SA) loss to Spezia was sandwiched by defeat in both legs of their UEFA Champions League semi-final against rivals Inter. Falling to Spezia left them four points behind the top four and with an increasingly difficult three-game battle on their hands to return to the Champions League next term.
A disappointing title defence and their European exit continues to pile the pressure on manager Stefano Pioli, so he wonāt be taking anything for granted as he prepares his side to host already-relegated Sampdoria. Milan have sometimes found sides in the bottom half going into this round hard to put away at the San Siro this term (W4, D3, L1), although theyāre at least unbeaten here in the league since late January (W4, D3).
With their relegation already confirmed, Sampdoria drew 1-1 with Empoli on Monday night, conceding an injury-time equaliser that denied them their first SA win since March 19th (D3, L5). Trailing 19th-placed Cremonese by six points, Dejan StankoviÄās side now look on course to finish bottom of the top-flight for the first time in their history.
If theyāre to do anything to avoid that, they need to drastically improve their away form as theyāve scored just once across their last four SA road fixtures (D1, L3) while they also lost 3-0 at the San Siro against Inter in October. As they also havenāt beaten Milan here since February 2017 (D2, L3), another difficult away day looms for La Samp.
Players to watch: Rafael LeĆ£o, whoās never lost a personal H2H (W4, D1), scored the winner for Milan in this fixture last term and laid on an assist when Milan beat Sampdoria 2-1 in September. Sampdoriaās Filip ĆjuriÄiÄ also scored in that game but heās picked up three times as many yellow cards (nine) as heās scored SA goals this season (three)!
Hot stat: In eight of the last nine H2Hs, the second half was drawn.