Cagliari v AC Milan: Probable Line-Ups and Key Statistics
Having won just one of their last 31 Serie A meetings with AC Milan, Cagliari will be hoping to end that run on Saturday afternoon as they play the role of hosts in Sardinia.
PROBABLE LINE-UPS
Cagliari (4-3-1-2): Olsen; Faragó, Klavan, Pisacane, Pellegrini; Rog, Cigarini, Nandez; Nainggolan; Joao Pedro, Simeone.
Unavailable: Pavoletti, Cragno, Cacciatore, Ceppitelli, Mattiello.
AC Milan (4-4-2):Donnarumma; Calabria, Musacchio, Romagnoli, Hernandez; Castillejo, Bennacer, Krunic; Calhanoglu; Ibrahmovic, Leao.
Unavailable: Duarte.
KEY STATISTICS
– Cagliari have won only one of their last 31 Serie A meetings against AC Milan (D7 L23): a 2-1 win in May 2017.
– AC Milan have lost only one of their last 15 away games against Cagliari in Serie A (W8 D6), a 2-1 defeat in 2017.
– AC Milan are unbeaten in their last Serie A game of the first half of the season in their last four campaigns (W2 D2): their last such defeat was in 2014/15 against Atalanta at San Siro (1-0).
– Cagliari have lost each of their last three league games, after going unbeaten in their previous 13 (W8 D5) – the last time the Rossoblu endured a longer streak of consecutive defeats was in October 2017 (five).
– AC Milan haven’t drawn any of their last 12 league games on the road (W6 L6): the last time they played more consecutive away games without a single draw in Serie A was in October 1950 (14).
– Cagliari have scored 20 goals in their opening nine home Serie A games this season, equalling their record of home goals at this stage of the competition (established in 1966/67 and in 2016/17).
– Cagliari have scored the most goals from crosses in Serie A this season (eight), while AC Milan have scored the joint-fewest goals from crosses (two).
– AC Milan have scored only 16 goals in Serie A this season: their fewest total after their opening 18 games of a Serie A campaign since 1985/86, when they ended that season in seventh place.
– Cagliari striker Giovanni Simeone has scored five Serie A goals this season, only one fewer than in the whole of the last campaign – he has never netted more goals in the first half of a season in the Italian top-flight.
– AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has scored 11 goals from direct free-kicks in the top five European leagues (three in Serie A, one in LaLiga and seven in Ligue 1): the only one of these he scored with the Rossoneri was in January 2012, against Cagliari.