SASSUOLO V AC MILAN: OPPONENT REVIEW

In this season's first midweek round of matches, AC Milan come up against Sassuolo at the ground where the Rossoneri celebrated their 19th Scudetto title win last May. Needless to say, Tuesday evening's game will be a completely different story as a new season gets underway. The Emilian side have so far recorded a win versus Lecce, a draw versus Spezia and a defeat to Juventus in their opening three games. In their last home game, they kept a clean sheet and will be looking for a second consecutive one in Serie A, a feat they last achieved in the course of a season in April 2019.

In general, their home form at Mapei is but a negative one with only two defeats coming in their last eight home games (vs Milan and Juventus); four wins and two draws complete that run. They also tend to score in front of their home crowd, too. Berardi and Co. in fact have not found the back of the net on only two occasions in their last 18 home games in Serie A (against Milan and Bologna), scoring 28 times (more than 1.5 on average per game). The Rossoneri defence will likely to be called upon against a team looking to upset the current Champions of Italy and give their home support a big performance.

CROSSES, PASSING ACCURACY AND WINNING POSSESSION BACK: WHERE SASSUOLO CAN HURT
The dangers of Sassuolo are many. Even though AC Milan have shown strong defensive solidity in this early part of the season, Dionisi's side has also shown in every game so far that they know how to cause problems for their opponents' defence, even in their opening day defeat to Juventus. After three games, the Neroverdi already excel in three different stat rankings. They have the second highest percentage rate of completed passes made in the opponent's half, 81%, behind only Fiorentina with 82%. Meanwhile, they lead the way on successful crosses (42% - 16/38) and successful dribbles (59.5%, 25/42); they are also third for winning possession back in the opponents' half (26, behind Inter with 32 and Napoli with 27). The side from Emilia have many solutions and Coach Pioli's side will have their work cut out to neutralise them.

BERARDI THE DANGERMAN, ITALIANS RAMPING UP
Domenico Berardi loves playing AC Milan in Serie A. The 28-year-old has already notched up ten goals against them, including two in the last four games, after going seven without a goal previously. Without doubt the club's most famous face, the Sassuolo forward, alongside Rafael Leão and Ciro Immobile, has played a part in the most number of goals in the top flight since the start of 2022 (16 in total, eight goals and eight assists). With him opening his 2022/23 Serie A account in style, defeating Lecce in the process, he will certainly need to be kept an eye on. Another revealing stat from Dionisi's side in their opening three Serie A games is the number of goals scored by Italians, who have already got three goals between them: Domenico Berardi, Davide Frattesi and Andrea Pinamonti. In fact, the Neroverdi have the most goalscorers with Italian nationality. It's a further warning for The Devil's backline, but a good thing for Italian football.

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