AC Milan and Udinese open the Serie A season this Saturday. After a while, Rossoneri took the title, coming back to the big stage following the years spent in mediocrity and despair. Stefano Pioli’s guys will have Udinese opposite to themselves. The team from Udine isn’t as powerful as in the past once they presented a problem for all the top teams in Italy, often beating them and influencing the title race. Though, they can’t be underestimated.
Preview
AC Milan
Rossoneri won the title, but they didn’t have an active transfer window like other Italian powerhouses. In fact, a few sounding names like Franck Kessie and Alessio Romagnoli left, while on the other side, the biggest signing was Charles De Ketelaere, who came from Club Brugge. The fantastic midfielder will be a perfect fit for Brahimi and these two can become Milan’s foundation for the next ten years. Also, Divock Origi came from Liverpool on a free transfer, another Belgian.
We are sure the management will do something by the end of the transfer window. It might not be as bombastic as everyone expects, but Milan needs a few more players for the upcoming challenges.
Milan didn’t have too many preseason friendlies, only five, winning four and losing one, to Zalaegerseg, 3-2. Though in the most important and final tests, against Marseille, 2-0, and Vicenza, 6-1, they would win.
The team is without Zlatan and Origi for sure, while Giroud, Messias and Tonali remain doubtful.
Udinese
The black and whites sold Nahuel Molina to Atletico Madrid, and from that money, bought a few young players whose cost was between €3 and €7 million. The club’s policy is very simple; they buy talents, refine and develop them before selling them for a much higher price.
That’s always been the case with Udinese, but in the last two years, they haven’t been playing a notable role in Italian football, unlike in the past when this team had a significant impact on all the happenings in Calcio. Truth be told, they’ve produced much better players too, but the Antonio Di Natale era is long gone.
During the preseason, Udinese played several games with top teams, like Chelsea or Bayer Leverkusen, and from what we’ve seen, this team usually both scores and concedes. Also, the most frequent outcome in terms of efficiency is the moderate one, meaning 2 or 3 goals. They would win games against weaker and lose against stronger teams.
Head to Head Games
Both teams scoring is something usual when Milan and Udinese meet, as the last five direct encounters ended like that. Both events in 2021/22 concluded with the same result, 1-1, indicating that Milan has a massive motive to beat the guests on Saturday.
Prediction
Udinese isn’t anything special at this particular moment, and despite all the troubles Milan has with injured strikers (Origi and potentially Giroud), the champions shouldn’t experience any trouble at San Siro.
Simply, even with all those issues, Rossoneri are better than the hosts. Additionally, they will have the full stadium behind them and a motive to the triumph following the last year’s draws.
Given the entire situation, the odds on Milan’s win are quite solid, 2/5. They aren’t high as we would like, but on the other side, the risk/profit ratio is completely acceptable for us.
Pick: Milan wins 2/5 at BetXchange
