AC Milan and Lazio meet for the second time in just four days as they clash in the first leg of the Italian Cup semi-finals on Wednesday at Giuseppe Meazza Stadium. The two teams have met at the same venue on Sunday and AC Milan won the Serie A match 2-1 with goals from Patrick Cutrone and Giacomo Bonaventura. The reverse league fixture was not a pleasant memory for AC Milan as they got hammered 4-1 at the Olympic Stadium in Rome back in September.
AC Milan have been doing quite well lately, especially after Christmas. First they managed to knock out bitter rivals Inter Milan in the Coppa Italia quarter-finals and then won three consecutive Serie A matches since the turn of the year. They still occupy a disappointing seventh place in the Serie A table, but sixth-placed Sampdoria are now just three points away. However, the Italian Cup would be a great consolation prize for Gennaro Gattuso and his men in case they don't manage to turn things around in the league. Andrea Conti and Marco Storari remain injured, while Leonardo Bonucci might also miss out.
Lazio had their own good streak going until last weekend, they were unbeaten in their last eight matches in all competitions before Sunday's defeat at AC Milan. Lazio are currently third in the Serie A table, far away from the top two but still with a good five-point cushion over fifth-placed AS Roma. The visitors have a few injury headaches ahead of this match as Davide Di Gennaro, Ciro Immobile, Adam Marusic and Stefan de Vrij are all set to miss out. Felipe Caicedo replaced striker Ciro Immobile at the weekend but failed to impress, so Felipe Anderson might get the starting berth this time.
Probable line-ups:
AC Milan: Donnarumma - Calabria, Bonucci, Romagnoli, Rodriguez - Kessie, Montolivo, Bonaventura - Suso, Cutrone, Calhanoglu
Lazio: Strakosha - Bastos, Wallace, Radu - Basta, Parolo, Leiva, Alberto, Lukaku - Milinkovic-Savic - Felipe Anderson
My prediction: 1-1 draw.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
AC Milan win - 2.39
Draw - 3.29
Lazio win - 2.87
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