The San Siro giants won the Super Cup a year ago, but only finished eighth in Serie A and were knocked out early in the Champions League playoffs. Their last chance to save the season was the cup, but they lost to Bologna in the final.
Allegri, who returned as head coach in the summer, started with a defeat to Cremonese and has already lost in both the cup and the Super Cup. However, in the league, they are still in contention for the “scudetto”. It’s true that there were only draws against Genoa and Fiorentina. But they did manage to beat strong Como 3-1.
The team from “Via del Mare” managed to finish seventeenth, the “safe” spot, with 34 points last spring. This season they are again fighting for survival, losing half of their matches, but so far picking up enough points to stay out of the relegation zone. As expected, they lost to Inter in the last round.
Rafael Leão and company score an average of 1.65 goals per game, while conceding only 0.8. For their guests, it’s almost the reverse: 0.65 goals scored and 1.4 conceded on average.
Milan have drawn twice in their last three matches
55% of Milan’s matches end with goals from both teams and the average total goals per match is 2.45
Lecce have lost five of their last eight matches
35% of Lecce’s matches end with goals from both teams and the average total goals per match is 2.05.
Milan (probable lineup): Maignan – Bartesaghi, De Winter, Tomori – Estupiñán, Rabiot, Modrić, Fofana, Saelemaekers – Loftus-Cheek, Rafael Leão.
Lecce (probable lineup): Falcone – Gallo, Gabriel, Gaspar, Veiga – Maleh, Ramadani, Caba – Banda, Camarda, Pierotti.
The 3-0 victory in the cup in September marked Milan’s fifth head-to-head win, while they have lost only once to Lecce in the past quarter-century.