Few would have predicted that 13 games into the season that AC Milan would be nine points ahead of bitter rivals Inter and heading the Serie A title race, but Massimiliano Allegri's side have been in sparkling form and bid to cement their position at the top of the Scudetto when travelling to Genoa to face Sampdoria this afternoon.
This fixture has proved to be a banana skin for the Rossoneri in the past two seasons, though. Indeed, they’ve beaten 2-1 by The Diavolo in their last two visits to the Stadio Comunale Luigi Ferraris. On the other hand, AC have been travelling well this term, something they underlined when beating Auxerre in France in their midweek Champions League fixture, and they’re unsurprisingly strong favourites to emerge from this game will three points.
Zauri, Semioli, Palombo, Padalino and Obiang are set to miss out for the home side, while the visitors are likely to be without Pato, Inzaghi, Oddo, Pirlo and Antonini. Allegri seems to favour partnering Robinho with star man Zlatan Ibrahimovic, so Ronaldinho may well be on the bench. They key player for Sampdoria is Italy striker Giampaolo Pazzini, whose confidence will be sky high after he netted a hat-trick which saw his side beat Lecce 3-2 last weekend.
Sampdoria need Pazzini to turn on the style again. Prior to the visit to Lecce, they had failed to score in their four previous matches in all competitions, including three matches on home soil. Domenico Di Carlo's sit a respectable eighth in the league going into this game, but they will need to improve in terms of their home for if they are to get themselves into a position to challenge for a spot in Europe next season.
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