Crotone-Milan: Match Preview and Predicted Line-ups
Davide Nicola’s men are currently five points off safety in the league, with Empoli currently with 29 points in the bag. And although, it does seem like a tough ask for the men from the south of Italy, but their recent form suggests that may well end up avoiding the drop this season.
Their last four league games have yielded them as many as eight points and not a single defeat. The tally of one draws and three wins comprise of wins over Chievo, Inter and Sampdoria. Nicola’s men though, have met Vincenzo Montella’s top-four chasing outfit twice already this season, but have failed to rack up a single win. They were ousted from the Coppa Italia fourth round following a 3-1 defeat and the league outing at the San Siro yielded a 2-1 loss for the Rossoblu back in December.
It’s clear that their recent form has been encouraging, but they will lock horns with side that can score some goals against on their day in Milan.
Montella’s men didn’t enjoy their last outing in the league, as it was a shock 2-1 defeat at the hands of Giovanni Martusciello’s Empoli. While, the Azzurri are hovering just a single spot above the dreaded red zone, they caused Milan some troubles going forward and Crotone would love to draw inspiration from that, considering Empoli have the worst attacking record in the league.
Crotone though, have scored the third least number of goals this season- 28, less than only Empoli and Palermo. In the defense sense though, they have been than all of the other teams that are fighting for survival and are just sixth bottom in that aspect, letting in lesser goals than the likes of Pescara, Palermo, Torino, Cagliari and Ivan Juric’s Genoa.
Their highest goal-getter happens to be Sassuolo loanee Diego Falcinelli, who has racked up a tally of 12 goals and three assists. The likes of Gianmarco Ferari, Adrian Stoian and Nigerian forward Simy have scored thrice each.
The Crotone attack though, will be have to be vary of the solid Milan defense, which boasts about being the fourth-best in the league having let in only 37 goals this season. The rossoneri have lacked the scoring prowess to become a top four team, and have managed to find the back of the net only 50 times, the ninth best in the league.
Former Sevilla man Carlos Bacca has scored 13 times and has been in some form of late, scoring five times and assisting twice in the last seven outings for the men in red and black. And the Colombian could be a key, heading into the clash at Calabria.
Milan will be boosted by the fact that the duo of Giacomo Bonaventura and Ignazio Abate is back in training, but the duo of Mattia de Sciglio and Jose Sosa will not feature against Crotone and will serve their respective yellow card suspensions. Luca Antonelli and Alessio Romagnoli are doubts, but are unlikely to feature.
As far as Crotone go, Maxwell Acosty is still nursing a muscle problem and is unlikely to play a part on Sunday.
Predicted line-ups
Crotone: Cordaz; Rosi, Ceccerini, Ferrari, Martella, Rohden, Barberis, Crisetig, Stoian; Trotta, Falcinelli
AC Milan: Donnarumma; Calabria, Zapata, Paletta, Vangioni; Kucka, Locatelli, Pasalic; Suso, Bacca, Deulofeu