AC MILAN v SALERNITANA: OPPONENT REVIEW

After the draw on Wednesday night in London against Tottenham which meant qualification to the Champions League Quarter-finals, AC Milan return to domestic Serie A action hosting Salernitana on Monday night for Matchday 26. A match that, despite the 22 points separating the two sides, promises to be a tricky one for the Rossoneri. In fact, Coach Pioli's boys, despite being unbeaten in four of their last five (3W, 1D) this season against teams in the bottom five, have lost their most recent fixture against opponents of this type: 5-2 against Sassuolo at San Siro. 

Moreover, after conceding in 12 games in a row, including the first of the three matches played with Paulo Sousa as coach (0-2 v Lazio), the Portuguese coach's side have kept a clean sheet in their last two league matches, against Monza and Sampdoria, and are looking for their third clean sheet in a row in the competition for the first time since May 1999 (a run of five in that case). On the other hand, the Rossoneri, despite their defeat in the last matchday against Fiorentina, will try to continue their streak of positive results at home - only one defeat in their last eight league matches in front of the home crowd.

LONG BALLS AND PLAYING FROM THE BACK, THE KEYS TO INTERPRETING SOUSA'S TEAM
But how could Paulo Sousa create problems for the Rossoneri backline? Since the coach has been sitting in the dugout for the Amaranto team (Matchday 23), the Campani have been the team with the most counter-attacks (six, on par with the Rossoneri), demonstrating how direct play from deep is one of the main principles for the ex-Fiorentina coach. Salernitana also left the ball with their opponents' for the whole game when facing Lazio, Monza and Sampdoria: in fact, only Lecce (36%) had a lower average ball possession than the Campani in the last three matchdays of the championship (38%).

As well as this, the Granata formation has shown itself to be very aggressive in winning the ball back in their last three matches, winning 56% of duels, a record percentage in this category among teams in the top division. It's not just positive aspects, since during the course of the tournament, the Amaranto have struggled enormously to manage both the start of the match, conceding 24 goals in the first half, and the middle portion of the match, letting in 21 goals in this timeframe, a negative record in both stretches of the current championship.

THE PIĄTEK-DIA TANDEM: THE SOURCE OF SALERNITANA'S GOALS
Who else but them? There are basically the two players on whom Salernitana's fortunes in the goal-scoring department depend, and those who the Rossoneri rearguard will have to watch out for: the two forwards Krzysztof Piątek and Boulaye Dia. The Senegalese forward, now recovered after a physical injury suffered in February, is Salernitana's top scorer this season with eight goals. Moreover, among the players who have attempted at least 25 shots in the current Serie A, the Granata striker is the one with the best scoring percentage (29.6%).

The Polish centre-forward, formerly a member of the Rossoneri with 36 appearances and 13 goals in Serie A between January 2019 and January 2020, is experiencing his longest goal drought since he played in Europe's top five leagues (2018/19): 12 goalless appearances in a row and he will try to end this fasting in the stadium where he has brought joy to Rossoneri fans in the past. They are the strong points of Salernitana, the two strikers of international calibre capable of changing the face of a game in which the Campani start as underdogs.

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