10 STATS AHEAD OF AC MILAN V LECCE

Another newly promoted side make their way to San Siro, with Lecce following in Brescia’s footprints. AC Milan will hope that the match on Sunday goes just like it did at the end of August, when they kept a clean sheet and won 1-0 thanks to Çalhanoğlu’s goal, or in mid-September when they won by the same scoreline against Verona, another side who have just entered the top league this season. Matchday 8 of Serie A will also see new Coach Pioli make his debut in the Rossoneri technical area, just another cause for excitement for Sunday’s fixture. Here are ten interesting statistics about the game coming up after the international break:

PREVIOUS ENCOUNTERS AT SAN SIRO

1 - AC Milan have won each of their last eight Serie A home games against Lecce: among the teams currently in the competition, only against Cagliari (14) have they had a longer winning streak.

2 - AC Milan have only failed to score in one of their last 15 games played against Lecce at San Siro (0-0 in January 1994). The Rossoneri have also scored at least two goals in each of their last nine home games against Lecce: 27 in total.

GENERAL STATISTICS

3 - No team has used more players than AC Milan in Serie A this season (23), while only Brescia and Inter (19) have used less fewer than Lecce (20).

4 - The Rossoneri have scored 67% of their goals from set-piece situations, the highest ratio in the top-flight this season. Meanwhile, Lecce are the team to have conceded the most goals from open play (13 out of 15).

5 - The Rossoneri will be looking to rediscover their attacking form against an opponent who are known for conceding: in fact, Lecce are the only team to have failed to keep a clean sheet so far this season.

PLAYER FOCUS

6 - Piątek made his debut in Italy in Genoa v Lecce in the Coppa Italia in August 2018, where he scored four goals in the first 37 minutes. So far Krzysztof has scored against 73% of the teams he has faced in Serie A (16 out of 22): only Quagliarella (85%) and Ronaldo (80%) have bettered this in the last two seasons. Since his Serie A debut, the Polish goalscorer is the player who has scored the opening goal of the match the most times across the top five European leagues: 14, including two scored this season.

7 - Theo Hernández has been directly involved in two goals (one goal, one assist) in the four games he has played so far for the Rossoneri: just one figure off his record for the entire of last season in La Liga (one goal, two assists).

8 - Lucas Biglia is the only current AC Milan player to have been coached by Pioli in Serie A - he made 48 appearances across two seasons with Lazio, scoring seven goals and recording five assists.

9 - The next time he is selected in the starting eleven will be Kessié’s 100th start for AC Milan across all competitions. Amongst the players currently in the squad, Franck is the Rossoneri’s third top scorer (13, level with Piątek and Çalhanoğlu), only behind Bonaventura (31) and Suso (23).

COACH FOCUS

10 - A perfectly symmetrical record for Stefano Pioli against Lecce: one win, one draw and one defeat across his time with Chievo and Bologna. Pioli has won two, drawn two and lost two games in his top-flight debuts with new clubs, with the last three of these debuts having been played at San Siro.

Remember that tickets are on sale for the home games against Lecce, SPAL and Lazio. Buy yours now! See you at San Siro!