Simon Dalton presents his prediction for the Coppa Italia match.
Lazio and AC Milan were certainly unlucky with the Coppa Italia draw. While other top clubs will be comfortably beating underdogs, these two will try to determine the stronger side in a head-to-head clash. Neither of them will want to be eliminated this early.
Lazio
Until Lazio get their key players back from the treatment room, their chances in matches against top clubs will be close to zero. In November alone they lost to AC Milan (0:1) and Inter Milan (0:2). In those games the team produced a meagre 1.32 xG while allowing 3.38 xGA. With main striker Taty Castellanos still recovering from injury, Boulaye Dia has taken his place. The problem is that in 13 Serie A matches he has scored only once, and that was back in August.
AC Milan
At the weekend AC Milan moved clear at the top of the league. Most importantly, they have dropped points only once in matches against teams from the top five – a draw with Juventus (0:0) in October. In the other four games the Milan side confidently took maximum points, and did so in Massimiliano Allegri’s familiar style: the aggregate score was 5:1.
Lazio vs AC Milan Prediction
These teams met last weekend, and AC Milan came out on top 1:0. Despite having 54% possession, Lazio created only 0.69 xG and allowed as many as 16 shots at their goal. We do not expect the pattern of the game to change much this time.
