AC MILAN v ROMA: FUN FACTS

AC Milan’s first home fixture of 2023 is rapidly closing in: the visitors to San Siro will be José Mourinho’s Roma, who, like the Rossoneri, won their first game of the year. It’ll be an exciting encounter between two ambitious teams at the upper end of the table. Ahead of Sunday’s 20:45 CET kick-off, here are some of the fun facts that you need to know.

POSITIVE RUN
The Rossoneri are unbeaten in five matches against the Giallorossi, who last got the better of AC Milan when they won 2-1 at the Olimpico in October 2019. This is Roma’s only victory in the past nine meetings between the sides home and away. Since then, there have been four Rossoneri wins and a draw – the 3-3 thriller in October 2020. AC Milan have won their last three Serie A matches against Roma and haven’t done better than this since February 1990, when, with Arrigo Sacchi at the helm, they made it five victories in a row against the Giallorossi. Furthermore, the Diavolo have scored in nine successive league matches against the team from the capital; they could find the net in ten consecutive games for the first time since 1972 (12).

HOME AND AWAY
Stefano Pioli’s men are enjoying a great run at home: AC Milan have won ten of their last eleven matches at San Siro in Serie A (L1). Since the start of April 2022, only Inter (11) have recorded more home wins in the Italian top flight. If we go further back, the Rossoneri have emerged victorious from 13 of their last 15 fixtures in Milan. Roma, meanwhile, picked up a point in their last away match in the league and haven’t drawn two successive Serie A games on the road since September 2019 (four back then). Furthermore, the Giallorossi have kept just one clean sheet in their last seven matches away from the Olimpico after recording three shutouts in the seven games before that.

GOALS
Many Rossoneri players who will take to the pitch tomorrow have scored against the Giallorossi for AC Milan. Davide Calabria bagged his first Serie A goal at the Olimpico on 25 February 2018 in a 2-0 victory where Cutrone also found the net. Rafael Leão and Theo Hernández have scored a goal apiece against Roma in the Italian top flight: the Portuguese netted in the most recent clash between the sides on 6 January 2022, while the Frenchman bagged in his first game against the team from the capital (October 2019). Furthermore, Olivier Giroud opened the scoring against Roma after eight minutes in the San Siro showdown last season, a match which also saw Junior Messias net. Ante Rebić, meanwhile, has scored in both of the games he’s played against the Giallorossi in an AC Milan shirt (June 2020 and February 2021). And then there’s Zlatan Ibrahimović, who, as a Rossonero, has netted seven times against Roma over the course of his career.

UP AGAINST THEIR FORMER SIDE
Three former Roma players currently play for AC Milan. Simon Kjær made 22 appearances for the Giallorossi in Serie A during the 2011/12 season. Alessandro Florenzi had a much longer spell in the capital, coming through Roma’s youth ranks and playing 226 times for them in Italy’s top tier. Finally, Antonio Mirante defended the Giallorossi goal on 29 occasions in Serie A between 2018/19 and 2020/21. On the other side of the coin, Stephan El Shaarawy wore the AC Milan shirt for four seasons, and Bryan Cristante made his league debut in 2013/14 while on the Diavolo’s books.

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