AC MILAN v FIORENTINA: FUN FACTS

It is still hard to believe: AC Milan v Fiorentina on Sunday 13 November at 18.00 CET will close out 2022. The World Cup break is closing in, despite us not yet being at the halfway point in the league campaign. But the game at San Siro is nonetheless a delicate and important one; the most important reason being it is the final one before the curtain closes for Serie A until January. Here are the main statistics related to matchday 15:

GOOD OMENS
Fiorentina are the side that AC Milan have scored the most number of goals against in Serie A (257). The Rossoneri have won 75 of the 164 games played against the Viola (44 draws, 45 defeats), and only against Roma have they done better (78). Fiorentina are also the team that AC Milan have earned the most home victories over in Serie A (49 out of 82 games).

A HAPPY END
The Rossoneri have won their last two end of year calendar league games, in 2021 versus Empoli, and in 2020 versus Lazio. The Rossoneri could obtain at least three successive end of year calendar game victories in Serie A for the first time since winning five on the trot between 1964 and 1968.

READY AND ACTION
So far, only Napoli (257) have attempted more shots than AC Milan (239) and Fiorentina (225) in this season's Serie A. The Rossoneri's last ten league goals have all arrived from open play; they are the team that has scored the most goals from open play in this league campaign up to now (24).

ROSSONERI PILLARS
Leão is just one goal shy of becoming the fourth player to score more than five goals in at least four consecutive Serie A seasons for AC Milan (after Weah, Kaká and Pato). Rafa has got two goals in three games against Fiorentina, both at San Siro, and one of these was his first ever in the competition, on 29 September 2019. Olivier Giroud has grabbed four goals in his last four appearances, in Serie A and Champions League; the Rossoneri have won all but one of the eighteen games in which Oli has scored in, in all competitions. Since the start of last season, only Bensebaïni (eight) has more goals than Hernández (seven) out of all defenders in Europe's top-five leagues. With his goal over Spezia, Theo has become the third Rossoneri defender in history to have scored at least 20 Serie A goals, after Paolo Maldini (29) and Aldo Maldera (27).

PIOLI IS ON FIRE
Between 2017 and 2019, Stefano Pioli was in the dugout as Head Coach of Fiorentina 69 times in Serie A. Again as a Head Coach, but as the opposing Coach, he remains unbeaten in ten out of 17 contests against the Tuscan side in Serie A (nine wins and one draw). In charge of AC Milan, Pioli has come out on top over the Viola in both home league games: 2-0 on 29 November 2020 and 1-0 on 1 May 2022.

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