LAZIO v AC MILAN: MATCH PREVIEW

Back at the Olimpico to face Lazio brings the opportunity to get back to winning ways in the league and shake off the bad result of January 2023. These wounds, amongst other things, should motivate us to give 100% in a fixture where we cannot afford to mess up our momentum. Here is the Match Preview for Matchday 27 which will kick off at 20:45 CET.

LATEST FROM MILANELLO
The draw at home against Atalanta left us with some regrets, but also several positive signs after the double defeat between Serie A (Monza) and the Europa League (Rennes, going through in any case). An important fixture and an important weekend for staying in third and edging closer to second. The days have passed calmly at Milanello with no problems ahead of the next big game: the best news is Tomori being back from injury, missing since the end of last year and ready for the bench. No big changes are expected to the starting XI and Pioli's choices: Calabria could be back in the line-up (instead of Florenzi) and Reijnders could find some space over Bennacer or Adli. Action up front still falls to Giroud with Jović disqualified. Only Pobega is out through injury. Four players are on a booking: Florenzi, Leão, Loftus-Cheek and Musah.

"We want to produce the same performance as last week whilst aiming for a different result", Pioli said to journalists. "We analysed the positives after Atalanta but also tried to understand why we couldn't score one more than them because we had the chance to. We need to be more cynical. The Europa League is important, but we are fully focused on Lazio. We have a strategy, it will be necessary to advance it with absolute mental consistency".

LATEST FROM LAZIO
Lazio come from a painful defeat in Florence after they initially went ahead. The Biancocelesti are having an inconsistent season in terms of results and progress: they're in the Coppa Italia semi-finals, the Champions League Round of 16 (already winning the first game against Bayern Munich) but they're lagging in Serie A. Eighth in the league, currently they wouldn't be in Europe next year. Striker and star of the show is Ciro Immobile (10 goals), Luis Alberto is in good form and Zaccagni is back: also beware of Provedal in goal; Romagnoli, the ex-Rossoneri who commands the backline; Cataldi in charge, and the Felipe Anderson factor. No surprises in Sarri's formation, going without a press conference yesterday, the solid 4-3-3 is ready to go, possession-based and pushing forward. Patric and Rovella are unavailable, Luca Pellegrini is the only player on a booking.

PRE-MATCH NUMBERS

• The only previous game in Serie A between AC Milan and Lazio that was held on a Friday was on 9 September 2011, Allegri in charge of the Rossoneri and Reja for the Biancocelesti: it finished 2-2 at San Siro with goals from Ibrahimović, Cassano, Klose and Cissé.
• AC Milan is unbeaten in 12 of the last 13 Serie A games against Lazio, with 10 wins and 2 draws.
• No side has scored more from corners this season than AC Milan: 7 (equal to Inter and Juventus). Lazio, however, have conceded the least of all sides from corners: 1 (same as Inter). 
• Leão has provided more assists only against Roma (4) in Serie A than against Lazio: 3, 2 in the first half of the season.

WHERE TO WATCH LAZIO v AC MILAN
In Italy, the match will be broadcast by DAZN. To watch Lazio v AC Milan in a different country, you can consult the "AC Milan on TV" webpage, clicking on the heading "Abroad". On the Rossoneri channels, Milan TV will provide live matchday coverage starting from 19:45 CET and continuing up until shortly before kick-off. After full-time, there will be interviews and Coach Pioli's press conference. From 20:40 CET, there will also be our Live Reaction show on our Twitch channel. Also not to be missed is the coverage on acmilan.com, the AC Milan Official App and our official social media profiles.

LATEST FROM SERIE A
Officiating Lazio v AC Milan will be Marco Di Bello, 42 from Brindisi, in charge of his 161st game in Serie A. 18 previous games for AC Milan, including the AC Milan 1-2 Atalanta in the Coppa Italia this season and the AC Milan 1-0 Fiorentina in Serie A. Completing the matchday staff are linesmen Meli and Alassio, fourth man Sacchi, DI Paolo on VAR and Aureliano on AVAR.

AC Milan v Lazio will open Matchday 27 of Serie A on Friday at 20:45 CET. On Saturday at 15:00 CET there will be Udinese v Salernitana, Monza v Roma at 18:00 CET, and Torino v Fiorentina at 20:45 CET. Then, on Sunday, Hellas Verona v Sassuolo at 12:30 CET, Empoli v Cagliari and Frosinone v Lecce at 15:00 CET, Atalanta v Bologna at 18:00 CET, and Napoli v Juventus at 20:45 CET. Finally, Inter v Genoa at 20:45 CET on Monday will close out the weekend.

Here is the current table:  Inter 69; Juventus 57; AC Milan 53; Bologna 48; Atalanta 46; Roma 44; Fiorentina 41; Lazio and Napoli 40; Torino and Monza 36; Genoa 33; Empoli 25; Lecce 24; Udinese and Frosinone 23; Hellas Verona, Sassuolo and Cagliari 20; Salernitana 13.

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