AS Roma vs AC Milan prediction: ITALY: Serie A betting tips on match 2023-08-31 18:45.
With José Mourinho making his return to the bench after a ten-day ban to start the new Serie A (SA) season, Roma will be eager to gain their maiden victory this term after a pair of disappointing results (D1, L1). That includes their latest 2-1 defeat against Hellas Verona, and Roma are now at risk of failing to win their three opening SA matches of the season for the first time since 2011/12!
An injury to Paulo Dybala certainly won’t help their quest to avoid that feat, but the arrival of Romelu Lukaku should help offset that disappointment. Despite being linked with Inter and Juventus this summer, Lukaku elected for Italy’s capital, and his arrival should help the Giallorossi with some of their offensive woes as they scored only 28 SA goals at home last term – only the league’s tenth-highest.
Scoring goals is something that hasn’t been an issue for AC Milan, who romped to a 4-1 win against Torino last weekend thanks to another fine showing from ex-Chelsea men Christian Pulišić and Olivier Giroud, after their double-act in round one. Pulišić has scored in his both opening SA matches for Milan, something only four other players achieved in history, and his goals have helped his side to a perfect two-game start to the season (W2).
The last time Milan started the SA season with two victories was in 2021/22 when they celebrated the title. They won ten of their opening 11 matches that season, including a 2-1 win here against Roma, and they’ll be hoping for more of the same here given the fact you need to go back to 2019 to find Milan’s latest defeat against the Giallorossi, with a seven-match unbeaten H2H run following it (W4, D3).
Players to watch: Houssem Aouar opened his scoring account for Roma last time out, with four of his last five goalscoring matches interestingly ending 2-1. Meanwhile, Giroud has scored in each of his last five SA matches, his longest scoring run in one of Europe’s top-five leagues since a streak of six for Arsenal in the Premier League back in 2015.
Hot stat: Four of the last six H2H goals have been scored after the 85th minute.