AC Milan vs Juventus

Among those six, only two points behind this year’s Italian Serie A leaders, Inter Milan, who are the defending champions, are set in action tomorrow at Hellas Verona.

When Inter were only one kick away from the top of the table before the international break, Verona has subsequently dropped four of their last five matches and is shipping goals at an embarrassing rate.

Remaining two points behind their visitors in the league table, a mixed night for set-piece taker Calhanoglu ended in a home draw against the league leaders Napoli the last match day.

Despite equalising for the Nerazzurri in style before the break his poor conversion rate from the penalty spot later on denied them of two vital points.

From this position, Calhanoglu wandered nervously in the penalty area before striking a shot that stunned San Siro by misfiring from the penalty spot, The Turkish international had not failed a penalty conversion since 2016 and his miss sees his team’s three-match winning run come to an abrupt end.

Inter in the past has dispatched Empoli, Venezia and Arsenal and they did so without conceding a single goal; victory over the later places them two points behind leaders in Champions League with the league phase half done for most clubs.

While Lazio has collected 25 points in Serie A this season, that is six fewer than at the same point last season, it means that head coach Simone Inzaghi will be eager to start a new successful period for the Scudetto holders on Saturday.

Before Inzaghi’s team departs for Saturday’s match at Verona, the Nerazzurri are two away victories shy of the top-flight record tally of 13 in one calendar year or the current Inter record of netting at least once on their travels to Stadio Bentegodi for 13 successive trips.

In total, Verona have lost 40 league games to Inter, won only four; to be more concrete, the Gialloblu have not won a single game in Serie A against the Milan giants for the last 26 matches.

Juventus extended their record run in the Derby della Mole to 19 games without a loss just before the break, continuing their long-standing domination over city rivals Torino.

Juve is in the middle of a potentially exciting title race, with six teams now separated by two points, and they enjoy an undefeated start to the Serie A season despite their shortcomings and injury problems. They have drawn and won six games.

Although they gave up four goals in a crazy Derby d'Italia match against Inter, Thiago Motta's team, who are now just behind Milan in the Champions League standings, had kept four clean sheets in their first five away games of the season.

Juventus will try to prevent such an unusual loss of control when they return to San Siro this week because a win would significantly hurt Milan's chances of winning the Scudetto in addition to increasing their own.

Up front, Milan has a number of options. Former Juventus striker Alvaro Morata recently made a comeback to action by playing for Spain in the UEFA Nations League, and Francesco Camarda, his 16-year-old deputy, scored twice for Italy Under-19s after starting against Cagliari.

Although Tammy Abraham is also available, Luka Jovic is joining Alessandro Florenzi and Ismael Bennacer on the Milanello treatment table due to a groin problem.

Rafael Leao has returned to something close to his peak since being benched earlier this month. The Portuguese juggernaut has finished 2024 with the most dribbles in Serie A and needs only one more goal to achieve double figures for the third straight calendar year.

Due to a thigh injury sustained by top scorer Dusan Vlahovic, Juventus will be without their main man up front. Backup striker Arkadiusz Milik is not expected to return until the following season.