Opposition insight for Milan-Lecce: Form, injuries, predicted XI and more
AC Milan return to Serie A action this weekend, with Lecce coming to San Siro in the final game before the international break.
It seems Milan are already in ‘must-win’ territory in September, with pressure beginning to rise on Ruben Amorim. Indeed, the Portuguese is now expected to stop experimenting and just focus on results.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, he explained why he’d been so keen to experiment so far this season, but admitted that tomorrow would be a ‘great opportunity’ to see some improvement.
Opposition insight on Benfica
➤ Manager: Eusebio Di Francesco ➤ Form (all comps): L-W-L-L-W (most recent) ➤ Top scorer (Primeira Liga): Lassana Coulibaly, Tiago Gabriel – 2 ➤ Most assists (Primeira Liga): Ivan Ilic – 2 ➤ Injuries & suspensions: Berisha, Gandelman, Geubbels.
The fact that this is even being previewed as a Serie A fixture is somewhat of a surprise, given that Lecce found themselves staring down the barrel of relegation with a few games to go last season.
Nonetheless, they chose to stick with Eusebio Di Francesco and the faith was rewarded. He delivered a couple of useful draws before winning three of the final four games from rounds 35-38 to obtain survival by four points.
The most dramatic of these was a 96th-minute Stulic winner away from home against Sassuolo in the penultimate game, which meant the 1-0 win over Genoa in the season finale saw them over the line with relative comfort.
Going into the new season, the Giallorossi have not done a lot of transfer business. The three signings they paid for were striker Willem Geubbels (Paris FC, for €4.6m), winger Joel Monteiro (Young Boys, €2.5m) and winger Amar Fatah (Troyes, €150k).
They signed full-back Ali Dembele from Torino on loan, while they also got midfielder Ivan Ilic from the same club for the season. Marco Bleve joined from Carrarese on a free transfer too.
The positive is that they were able to keep a lot of their big names, above all Tiago Gabriel who renewed on Thursday. The only sales with Giacomo Fiacinti, Ylber Ramadani and Christian Fruchtl, all for €1m each.
While many once again fancied them for the drop, the Salento club have begun their season quite well, winning two of their first four games in the league, after a disappointing Coppa Italia exit to Serie B side Palermo (2-0) in mid-August.
Lecce won 2-0 away from home against newly-promoted Venezia in round one, in what was very much a smash-and-grab. They lost 4-0 at home to Roma then 1-0 at Cagliari, but returned home to the Stadio Via del Mare and beat Monza 3-2 in a thriller. Lassano Coulibaly got a brace in that game.
There are three injury issues for Di Francesco to contend with. Midfielder Medon Berisha will miss out, as will Omri Gandelman. Geubbels is a doubt and might end up being a game-day decision.
After their difficult win against Monza, Di Francesco isn’t considering making any changes it seems. So, Falcone will sit behind a back four of Veiga, Siebert, Gabriel and Gallo. Coulibaly, Ilic and Maleh will make up the front three.
Leading the line will be Stulic with N’Dri and Monteiro both keeping their places.
Predicted Lecce XI (4-3-3): Falcone; Veiga, Siebert, Gabriel, Gallo; Coulibaly, Ilic, Ngom; Pierotti, Stulic, Monteiro
Predicted bench: Bleve, Borbei, Dembelé, Gaspar, Jean, Scott, Ndaba, Fofana, Gorter, Kaba, Maleh, N’Dri, Esteban, Fatah
