WOMEN, AC MILAN v FIORENTINA: MATCH PREVIEW

A defeat to leave in the past and the desire to get up and running on home turf. The Rossonere will resume their Women's Serie A season at the PUMA House of Football with a big fixture: AC Milan v Fiorentina (tickets here). Coach Bakker's side want to bounce back from their defeat to Como Women, and there's no better opportunity to do so than in front of their own fans against the team that finished third last season. The required motivation is there to start a great journey.  

LATEST FROM THE PUMA HOUSE OF FOOTBALL
These past two weeks without league action have seen the Rossonere intensify their work, building on their summer preparations. Beyond the disappointing result, the performance against Como Women in Seregno was promising in terms of playing style and the chances created. Last Saturday, the team beat FC Zürich 4-0 in a friendly at the PUMA House of Football, with Dompig, Renzotti, Marinelli and Vigilucci getting on the scoresheet. It was an important test to keep up the pace and continue to work on playing patterns before returning to competitive action. The players have responded well, and now it’s time to translate these positive signs into a positive result against a high-quality side.

Coach Bakker spoke on the eve of the match: "After a non-competitive weekend, in which we played a valuable friendly against Zürich, we are looking forward to playing our first competition match at home against Fiorentina. A great opportunity to show ourselves to our fans".

LATEST FROM FIORENTINA
De La Fuente's Viola shone in Europe during the break, beating Brøndby and then Ajax to secure a two-legged tie against Wolfsburg in the second round of qualifying. These two victories (both 1-0) came on the back of an opening day 1-0 league win over Napoli. Fiorentina have thus started the campaign with three consecutive clean sheets and will be full of confidence after their Women's Champions League exploits, which gives a good idea of the difficulty of the task that awaits the Rossonere in their first home game of the season.

PRE-MATCH STATS

• AC Milan and Fiorentina conceded the fewest shots on the opening matchday of the 2024/25 season: seven each. Only Juventus (nine) had more efforts on target than the Rossonere last time out (eight, the same as Inter).
• Fiorentina (72.9%) and AC Milan (63.7%) are two of the three teams who had the highest amount of possession on matchday one in Serie A (Inter were second in this regard with 67.9%).
• Out of all the players who have scored at least 15 goals and provided at least ten assists in the last five Serie A seasons (from 2020/21), the youngest is the Rossonera Chanté Dompig (18G+11A for the 23-year-old).

WHERE TO WATCH AC MILAN ON TV
In Italy, AC Milan Women v Fiorentina will be broadcast live on DAZN and Rai Sport from 18:00 CEST. Don't miss the coverage on acmilan.com, the Rossonere's Instagram account and the AC Milan Official App where the full match replay will also be available on demand from the following day.

LATEST FROM SERIE A FEMMINILE
The referee for the game will be Simone Gauzolino, who will be assisted by Matteo Lauri and Gian Marco Cardinali. Daniele Dell'Oro will perform the role of fourth official.

Matchday 2 of the league season will kick off on Saturday with three matches: Roma v Sassuolo at 12:30 CEST, Juventus v Como at 15:00 CEST and AC Milan v Fiorentina at 18:00 CEST. A further two games will be played on Sunday: Sampdoria v Lazio at 12:30 CEST and Napoli v Inter at 15:00 CEST.

The Serie A Femminile eBay table: Inter 3; Juventus 3; Como 3; Fiorentina 3; Lazio 1; Roma 1; AC Milan 0; Napoli 0; Sassuolo 0; Sampdoria 0.

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