TORINO v AC MILAN: KEYS TO THE MATCH

The most intense month of the Rossoneri season comes to an end at the Olimpico in Turin: Ivan Jurić's men will take on Stefano Pioli's AC Milan, who in the 12th matchday are on the hunt for points as they pursue the leading Napoli. Coming in between two important Champions League fixtures, Torino vs AC Milan is a difficult match that will have to be decided over the course of 90 demanding minutes. While we wait for it to kick-off, let's try to understand the match from three important angles.

OPENING THE SCORING
At the Stadio Olimpico-Grande in Turin, two of the three sides to not have lost points from winning positions this season, will face each other (the third is Roma). Four wins from four for Torino, eight of eight for the Rossoneri. To open the scoring, therefore, could decisively determine the winner of the match between two teams with notably different goal scoring distributions so far this season. 7 of AC Milan's 24 scores (29%) in the league have come in the first half hour of play, while Torino have only scored twice in this period. Torino have been most dangerous in the last quarter of the first half (three goals scored, the most prolific period of the match for Jurić's boys), a period in which the Rossoneri have only conceded one goal, on the first matchday against Udinese. It will be crucial, therefore, to keep focus high throughout the match.

STRENGTH DOWN THE LEFT
Both Torino and AC Milan have several players in their squad who can make a difference on the left flank over the course of 90 minutes. The Italian champions boast two high-level players like Theo Hernández and Rafael Leão, a duo that, actually, has a positive tradition against Torino: the Frenchman scored his first brace for the Rossoneri at the Olimpico and the Portuguese winger has been involved in four goals in his eight career matches against Torino, exactly as many goals as he has contributed to in the last three league away fixtures. On the left hand side, Pioli, in the event of increased rotation for European commitments, could also count on two alternatives who have performed positively this month: Fodé Ballo-Touré and Ante Rebić, both of whom scored away against Empoli at the beginning of October. Torino can also rely on, on that same side, an important player such as Nikola Vlašić, whose three goals makes him Torino's top scorer in the league. Another name to keep an eye on is that of Austrian Valentino Lazaro, who has been a regular starter in the league since the beginning of September and has been positively noted for his versatility on the left flank.

DRAWING ON SUBSTITUTIONS
In what could turn out to be a tight game, coming at the end of a particularly demanding month for both teams - the sixth game in October for Torino and the eighth for AC Milan - the contribution of substituted players could prove important, also because Torino and the Rossoneri have a total of only one goal - in the league - scored by a player from the bench, the aforementioned goal by Ante Rebić in Empoli-AC Milan. Jurić and Pioli are, also, two coaches with different habits with respect to the time in which they make the first substitutions: in only three out of eleven matches (Udinese, Bologna and Inter), the Rossoneri's coach gave the first substitute less than 30 minutes (excluding injury time), while in Torino's case it has happened seven times that the first player to come on has had less than half an hour left in the game. To leave a mark in a short time: something that could be asked, by both coaches, of those who will be on the bench and not a part of the 22 starting players.

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