Defending Serie A champions Juventus are looking for some Coppa Italia glory, they visit AC Milan at Giuseppe Meazza Stadium on Thursday for the first leg of their semi-final tie. The two sides have met in Turin for a league match in November and Juventus won it 1-0 with a second-half goal from Paulo Dybala. Juventus have won the last nine direct matches in all competitions, the last time AC Milan won against the Bianconeri was in 2016.
AC Milan had a seven-game unbeaten run going before last weekend, and they seemed capable of pushing it further as they were leading local rivals Inter 2-0 at half-time. The second half was a disaster for the Rossoneri, though, they conceded four goals and lost the match, dropping to tenth place in the Serie A table. Mateo Musacchio and Davide Calabria did not play in the derby but they should return to the starting line up for Thursday's game.
Juventus suffered their own setback last weekend, they lost 2-1 at Verona and allowed Inter to leapfrog them at the top of the table on goal difference. The defeat against Verona was their second in the last three matches, quite a bump coming after five consecutive wins in all competitions. Veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon will most likely be in the starting eleven because he played in the previous cup games, while Aaron Ramsey and Paulo Dybala will probably replace Douglas Costa and Gonzalo Higuain.
Probable line-ups:
AC Milan: Donnarumma - Calabria, Musacchio, Romagnoli, Hernandez - Castillejo, Bennacer, Kessie, Calhanoglu - Ibrahimovic, Rebic
Juventus: Buffon - Cuadrado, De Ligt, Bonucci, Sandro - Bentancur, Pjanic, Rabiot - Ramsey - Dybala, Ronaldo
My prediction:
Both sides will be desperate to bounce back from last weekend's results, and that will most likely lead to a 1-1 draw.
Here are the odds for the match at NetBet:
AC Milan win - 3.70
Draw - 3.40
Juventus win - 2.10
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