10 FACTS AHEAD OF SASSUOLO v AC MILAN

The Rossoneri take on Sassuolo tomorrow at the Mapei Stadium at 18:00 CEST. It’ll be a match which carries a lot of significance, with a lot on the line. The last two encounters with the Neroverdi were both played at San Siro and didn’t end favourably for AC Milan, who will chase a historic victory in Reggio Emilia, which would see them secure a historic title. With just under 24 hours until kick-off, here are some statistics and match facts about Sassuolo v AC Milan:

HEAD-TO-HEAD
1- Sassuolo and AC Milan have met on 17 occasions in Serie A; AC Milan winning 9 of these, with 2 draws and 6 Neroverdi victories.

2- The most common past score-line between the two teams in Serie A has been 2-1 in AC Milan’s favour; the last four matches have ended in this way, including the last two encounters between the two sides at the Mapei Stadium.

3- AC Milan have won each of their last five games away to Sassuolo in Serie A, after losing their first three away games to the Neroverdi; AC Milan have managed to score at least two goals in six of their last eight matches at the Mapei Stadium (including all of the last four). 

CURRENT FORM
4- AC Milan boast the best undefeated record in the league this season (15 games). The Rossoneri are also 11 away games without a defeat, the longest currently open streak of any team in the division.

GENERAL STATS
5- With just one game to go,  the average age of AC Milan’s starting XI this league season is 26 years and 93 days. This AC Milan team could become the youngest team to win the  Scudetto, since the start of the three-points-per-win era.

6- For the fourth time in the club’s history, AC Milan could become Italian champions in a season in which their top-scorer has scored less than 12 goals (Leão is the Rossoneri’s top-scorer with 11 goals this league campaign). We have to travel back to the 1987/88 season for the first time this happened (11, Pietro Paolo Virdis), then in 1993/94 (11, Daniele Massaro) and in 1995/96 (11, George Weah).

PLAYER FOCUS
7- Rafael Leão, who scored the fastest goal in Serie A history back in December 2020 at the Mapei Stadium, has six goal contributions (three goals, three assists) in his last five league appearances. The Portuguese winger has also tallied the most successful dribbles in this season’s Serie A (95) and has the most goals after travelling with the ball for at least 5 metres (6).

8- Come the day of the match, Zlatan Ibrahimović will be 40 years and 231 days old: were he to score, he would become the second-oldest goal-scorer in Serie A history, overtaking Silvio Piola in the process who scored in 1954 (40 years and 131 days old) with just Alessandro Costacurta in front of him (41 years and 25 days old). The Swede is also just the one goal away from 21st place in all-time top goal-scorers in Serie A and two away from 20th.

9- Since joining Milan in 2017/18, Franck Kessie has the most appearances for the Rossoneri (222) and has the most goals in all competitions (36, level with Ibrahimović). In total, the Ivorian midfielder has amassed 18,305 minutes on the pitch wearing the Rossoneri shirt since signing for the club, which is at least 35 hours more pitch-time than any other teammate.

COACH FOCUS
10- Stefano Pioli will be 56 years and 214 days old come matchday in Reggio Emilia and could become the third-oldest coach to win a Scudetto with AC Milan since the introduction of a single-group Serie A (from the 1929/30 season). The only two managers older than him to accomplish this feat to date were Lajos Czeizler (57 years and 255 days old in 1950/1951) and Nils Liedholm (56 years and 217 days old in 1978/1979).

The AC Milan 2022/23 season tickets are now available: #UnaStoriaUnica, see you at San Siro!