Sassuolo vs AC Milan

Reigning Serie A champions AC Milan take a trip to the Mapei Stadium to take on a depleted Sassuolo side in an exciting midweek encounter.

Following a painful 3-0 defeat at Juventus on the opening weekend, Sassuolo have gone unbeaten in back-to-back Serie A outings (W1, D1), including a frustrating 2-2 draw at Spezia last weekend. With the likes of Gianluca Scamacca and Giacomo Raspadori now part of Sassuolo’s history, Alessio Dionisi’s bid to build on his side’s impressive three-match H2H run against Milan (W2, L1) has no solid leg to stand on. But after beating newly-promoted Lecce 1-0 in their first home league game of the season, ‘I Neroverdi’ can register back-to-back clean sheets at Mapei in Serie A for the first time since April 2019. That’s easier said than done, as Milan’s last visit to this venue yielded an emphatic 3-0 scoreline in favour of the defending Serie A champions.

Meanwhile, a 1-1 draw away to Atalanta, sandwiched by a pair of two-goal margin home victories over Udinese and Bologna, puts Milan at the top of the tree ahead of the kick-off. Seeking their first away league win in 2022/23, ‘I Rossoneri’ head into proceedings in high spirits after going unbeaten in their last 19 Serie A fixtures (W13, D6), their third-best such streak in a three-point-per-win era. But Stefano Pioli’s men are staring at the prospect of going winless in consecutive away league games for the first time since February 2020. That’s unlikely to happen, though, with Milan coming out victorious in their last six top-flight visits to Sassuolo. Another potential triumph here would see them win seven successive Serie A away meetings with a particular opposition for the first time in the club’s history.