AC MILAN v GENOA: MATCH PREVIEW

Back at San Siro, this time for our first Coppa Italia fixture of the season. One week on from the victory over Roma, which saw AC Milan start 2022 on the right foot, the Rossoneri now take to the field for a direct knock-out tie. Andriy Shevchenko's Genoa will head to San Siro in a tie that will be Shevchenko's and Mauro Tassotti's first as opposing coaches at the stadium they once called home (though the Ukrainian is still awaiting a negative test result). Ahead of kick-off at 21:00 CET, we have brought together all of the pertinent information our Match Preview.

LATEST FROM MILANELLO
With respect to the win in Venice, Stefano Pioli has two players returning from recent unavailability in Fikayo Tomori and Ciprian Tătăruşanu. Zlatan Ibrahimović, meanwhile, is missing as he serves a one-match suspension in the Coppa Italia. We could see some changes to the starting XI: among them Ante Rebić, who is now fully fit after being named in the matchday squad for Roma and playing 28 minutes at the Penzo on Sunday. Sandro Tonali may also start, given that he is suspended for Monday evening's clash with Spezia in the league.

"We'll need to do our best to win the game tomorrow. It will be a chance to continue our good run," said Stefano Pioli in his pre-match press conference. "This game will throw up plenty of different difficulties with regards to our most recent league matches. Genoa are compact and aggressive; we'll need to be really flexible and technically clean."

LATEST FROM GENOA
The Rossoblù, who are currently second-bottom of Serie A with 12 points from 21 games, qualified for the Round of 16 after beating Perugia 3-2 and then Salernitana 1-0. Shevchenko has had a lot of players recover from injuries to be back at his disposal in recent weeks. Compared to the league match against AC Milan, for example, he will have the chance to pick from three more experienced players, Felipe Caicedo, Mattia Destro (15 appearances and three goals with AC Milan in 2014/15) and Goran Pandev. No players are suspended, but Cambiaso will be unavailable as well as three players who have tested positive for Covid-19 (whose details have not been released). The swap between European champion Sirigu and Croatian Adrian Šemper is also possible.

PRE-MATCH
The Rossoneri are entering the Coppa Italia at the Round of 16 stage for the sixth consecutive time and AC Milan have qualified for the quarter-final in every edition of the tournament since 2010. AC Milan and Genoa last faced off a month and a half ago in the league: 3-0 to the Rossoneri at the Ferraris on 1 December. The last time the two sides met - of a total of five fixtures, with the first in 1937 - in the Coppa Italia was further back in history: 21 August 1985, a 2-2 draw in Genoa in the group stage with a goal from Virdis and an own goal from Mileti. The last win was in September 1982, also in the group stage: 3-2 to AC Milan with a goal from Serena and a brace from Jordan. 

LATEST FROM THE COPPA ITALIA
The 41-year-old Gianluca Aureliano (Bologna) will take charge of AC Milan v Genoa. This is Aureliano's second time refereeing the Rossoneri this season after AC Milan v Torino: 1-0 on 26 October. Assisting him will be linesmen Alassio and De Meo, as well as Fourth Official Rapuano. Prontera is on VAR duty, assisted by Preti.

The Round of the 16 of the Coppa Italia 2021/22 sees the entry of the last season's top eight in Serie A. The round began yesterday with Atalanta 2-0 Venezia, while Napoli and Fiorentina face-off today (18:00 CET). Next week, there are five other matches: Lazio v Udinese at 17:30 CET on Tuesday (the winner will take on the winner of AC Milan v Genoa) and Juventus v Sampdoria at 21:00 CET; on Wednesday 19, it's Sassuolo v Cagliari at 17:30 CET and Inter v Empoli at 21:00 CET; Roma then host Lecce at 21:00 CET on Thursday. 

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