The five key battles that could win or lose the game for Milan against Atalanta

AC Milan will make the short trip to Bergamo on Tuesday night to face their Lombardy neighbours Atalanta, hoping to return to winning ways.

The hope is to bounce back from disappointment too, given that on Friday Milan were held to a draw by bottom-placed side Pisa, a game they needed a 95th-minute equaliser in just to rescue something. It won’t be easy to win tonight though, as Atalanta are unbeaten in the league.

In his pre-match press conference, Massimiliano Allegri admitted that his team ‘made life difficult’ for themselves versus Alberto Gilardino’s men. In a rare midweek round, they have a big chance to put things right a few days later.

Atalanta vs. Milan: Five key battles

As is often the case when Milan play Atalanta, we are spoilt for choice when it comes to picking out the duels that will happen across the field. This is helped by the fact that both teams play a similar system, with three-man defences going up against each other.

For La Dea, the main mission when it comes to defending will be containing Rafael Leao, and Ivan Juric is expected to call upon Odilon Kossounou to help do that. After spending some time out due to injury, the former Leverkusen man was reintroduced against Slavia Prague, but didn’t play vs. Cremonese at the weekend with this task in mind.

Photos: Francesco Scaccianoce + Emmanuele Ciancaglini/Getty Images

Kossounou faces a tough task against Leao, who is in red-hot form with three goals in his last two league appearances. The Ivorian will try to tame his runs and cut off the supply into the Portuguese, who will likely find himself drifting to the left again or dropping off into space between the lines.

Moving into the midfield, there will be a contest between two compatriots as Mario Pasalic comes face-to-face with Luka Modric. Pasalic is tipped to play as an attacking midfielder behind the front two, while Modric will occupy his usual regista role, so the former will try to limit the latter in the build-up phase.

It is entirely possible that Juric’s plan is to get Pasalic to pin Modric as much as possible and stop him influencing the game, given that he is very much the metronome for the Rossoneri, and of course there is the added sub-plot that he is facing the club he was on loan at almost 10 years ago.

Speaking of facing former clubs, Charles De Ketelaere is currently tipped to start in a front two for Atalanta alongside Ademola Lookman. Both the Belgian and the Nigerian scored in this fixture last year, with the opener coming from a cross in which De Ketelaere posterised his old team-mate Theo Hernandez at the back post.

It was a predictable script given how things went at Milan for the former Brugge man, but tonight he will come up against someone a lot more ready for the physical battle in Strahinja Pavlovic. The Serbian will have to watch his movements closely and stay tight, while also doing his usual work going forward where he detaches and breaks lines with runs.

Moving out wide, the duel involving Nicola Zalewski and Alexis Saelemaekers out on the Nerazzurri’s left side appears a particularly interesting one. Both players seem to be quite simply naturals when it comes to the wing-back roles, where they can bomb up and down the flanks, contributing to attacks.

Both the Poland international and the Belgium international have one goal and one assist in Serie A so far this season. Their influence will come from overlapping runs and being the spare men to push up and join moves in transition, but they must also know the right moments to protect their own box.

Finally, we end with the battle between Ederson and Samuele Ricci in the midfield department. Ederson is a player that has been linked with Milan a few times during his tenure in Bergamo, and the 26-year-old has remained a key component of Juric’s midfield having been so under Gasperini too.

Ricci has had increased minutes in the past couple of games due to injuries in the midfield, but the overwhelming feeling is that he has not yet grabbed the opportunities by the scruff of the neck. Coming out on top in this particular game and against a top-level opponent would show serious growth.