A tough away game awaits AC Milan against Udinese on Sunday evening. Not because the latter have been in good form, but rather because of the heavy absences. 

Thursday’s defeat to Bournemouth was deflating, to say the least, and Milan now need to bounce back with a good performance in the league. They also need to reverse a trend on away soil, having drawn the last three away games in the competition.

Ruben Amorim didn’t have a press conference for the game, seeing as he spoke to the media on Thursday evening, so we don’t know exactly what his thoughts are. However, we know that he cannot be happy with the injury situation.

Game date: Sunday, October 25
Kick-off time: 20:45 (CET)
Venue: BlueEnergy Stadium (Stadio Friuli)
Referee: Matteo Marcenaro (VAR: Ivano Pezzuto)

Team news

The injury situation was far from good just earlier this week, with the likes of Matteo Gabbia, Alexis Saelemaekers, and Samuel Chukwueze on the sidelines, but it has got even worse just in the last 24 hours.

As confirmed by Milan on Saturday afternoon, Amorim will also be without the key players Mario Gila, Adrien Rabiot and Diego Moreira. The first two can be replaced on paper, albeit not quality-wise, but the wing-back position was already lacking depth before the Belgian’s injury.

It seems we could be looking at yet another ‘formation change’, with Gazzetta dello Sport listing the players in a 4-3-3 at the time of writing. Since there was so much rotation against Bournemouth, however, the only change in defence would be Davide Bartesaghi in for Pervis Estupinan.

Yunus Musah, Luka Modric and Ardon Jashari are expected to team up in a midfield three, which was realistically the only way to make up for Rabiot’s absence. A 4-2-3-1 with Omari Hutchinson at CAM would have been possible, but Musah and Jashari showed they cannot run the midfield on their own against Bournemouth.

There will be no more messing around in attack either, with Amorim set to go for Omari Hutchinson, Christian Pulisic and Goncalo Ramos and as the front three. In case you missed it, the Portuguese striker returned to training on Friday and will thus be available.

As you can see below, Amorim won’t exactly have a fantastic bench at his disposal, with the only real threat being Alphadjo Cisse from an attacking point of view. Francesco Camarda is an option too, as is Christian Comotto who made his first appearance against Bournemouth.

The head coach didn’t host a press conference today as said, so we didn’t get to hear his take on the injuries, but we can’t imagine that he’s happy with it. The pressure is already mounting after the mid-week defeat and this is a game they need to win to calm the storm.

Predicted Milan XI (4-3-3): Maignan; Tomori, De Winter, Pavlovic, Bartesaghi; Musah, Modric, Jashari; Hutchinson, Ramos, Pulisic.

Predicted bench: Torriani,  Bouyer, F. Terracciano, Vladimirov, Diawara, Estupinan, Perera, Comotto, Loftus-Cheek, Vos, Cisse, Menon, Ossola, Camarda.

Injuries & suspensions: Chukwueze, Gabbia, Gila, Moreira, Rabiot, Saelemaekers, P. Terracciano.

The opponents

It’s been a rough start to the season for Udinese and that’s putting it mildly. They were a force to be reckoned with in the 2025-26 campaign, finishing in 10th with 50 points (even beating Milan 3-0), but they haven’t been able to replicate that so far.

Kosta Runjaic is still the head coach of the team, so nothing has changed on that front, but it’s possible that the management got some of the summer business wrong. The biggest departure was Arthur Atta, who left for Fiorentina in a €25m deal after impressing with six goals and four assists.

Thomas Kristensen was another big departure as he joined Atalanta on loan with an obligation to buy. Arguably one of their best defenders, he was always going to be difficult to replace and Udinese opted for a veteran here, getting David Alaba on a free transfer after his Real Madrid contract expired.

The Austrian veteran is still being eased into things, but there’s no doubt that his experience could be crucial moving forward. Other notable signings included Mergim Vojvoda from Como (a really tidy player), Lazar Jovanovic from Stuttgart and Idrissa Gueye from Metz.

But okay, even if the summer business perhaps left a little to be desired overall, few expected Udinese to start the season like this. They have won just one game so far and even worse, they have lost all of their last five league games (!). That’s shocking form.

They did manage a draw against the hyped Como at the start of the season, but their win came against another struggling side, namely Monza. In short, something clearly isn’t clicking and Udinese have confirmed that Runjaic now has three games to prove his worth. Talk about pressure.

Shifting focus to the squad status, it’s not fantastic for Runjaic as the aforementioned Alaba suffered a muscle injury in the 3-0 defeat to Lecce. He won’t be available, as such, and the same goes for the new midfield signing Gueye, the right-back Alessandro Zanoli, and the forward Bayo.

Two changes are expected in defence, with James Abankwah and Matteo Palma coming in, while Jakub Piotrowski looks set to replace Oier Zarraga in midfield. Other than that, it will be the expected Udinese with key players like  Jesper Karlström, Jurgen Ekkelenkamp and Kenan Davies.

Oumar Solet is in the predicted eleven right now, but Runjaic did warn that he might not make it due to a muscle problem.

Predicted Udinese XI (3-4-2-1): Okoye; Abankwah, Palma, Solet; Vojvoda, Piotrowski, Karlström, Kamara; Chakvetadze, Ekkelenkamp; Davis.

Predicted bench: Padelli, Mrozek, Bertola, Ebosse, Kabasele, Zanoli, Zarraga, Miller, Lovric, Arizala, Jovanovic, Unai, Zaniolo, Vinciati.

Injuries & suspensions: Alaba, Bayo, Gueye, Zanoli.

Head to head

There have been 109 encounters between Milan and Udinese so far, which will make Sunday’s clash the 110th. The Rossoneri have a pretty clear advantage so far with 48 wins, compared to Udinese’s 24, but there have also been a high 37 draws.

That said, if we look at just the last four seasons, there have been zero draws in this fixture: eight games with five wins for the Rossoneri and three for Udinese. There have been many goals as well, with 27 scored in those eight games (average of 3.38 per game!).

The most recent clash broke a bit of a trend as Udinese ended a four-game winning run for Milan in the fixture, beating them 3-0 at San Siro. If we focus on the latest Friuli clash, however, the Rossoneri prevailed with the same scoreline after goals from Christian Pulisic and Youssouf Fofana.

Key stats and facts

➤ Udinese and Milan have not drawn any of their last eight Serie A matches. In that period, Milan have won five times and Udinese three times. In the most recent game, the Friuli side prevailed 3-0 on April 11.

➤ Although Milan have scored 24 goals in their last 13 Serie A matches against Udinese (an average of 1.8 per game), they failed to find the net in their most recent one. The last time the Bianconeri kept two consecutive clean sheets against the Rossoneri was between 1993 and 1994 (two 0-0 draws).

➤ Milan have won their last three Serie A away games against Udinese, with an aggregate score of 10-2; only once have they managed four consecutive away wins against this opponent in the competition, between 1999 and 2001.

➤ Udinese have lost each of their last five Serie A matches, with an aggregate score of 5-13. The last time they recorded more consecutive defeats in the tournament dates back to the period between February and April 2018 (11, under Massimo Oddo).

➤ Milan have drawn each of their last three away games in Serie A; the last time they recorded four consecutive draws on the road in the competition was in April-May 2017, under Vincenzo Montella.

➤ Udinese have lost five of their seven Serie A games this season (W1 D1); only three times in their history in the competition have they recorded more defeats in the first eight games of a season: in 1960/61 (six), 1961/62 (seven) and 2017/18 (six).

➤ Ruben Amorim is the third manager to remain undefeated in his first seven Serie A games with Milan, following Hector Puricelli in 1955 (undefeated in his first eight) and Luis Carniglia in 1963 (undefeated in his first 13).

➤ Only Troyes (-9) and Racing Santander (-9) have a worse goal difference than Udinese considering only the second halves of the five major European leagues currently underway: -8 for the Friulians (like Borussia M’gladbach) – two goals scored and 10 conceded after half-time.

➤ The only time Jurgen Ekkelenkamp has both scored and provided an assist in a Serie A match was on April 11 against AC Milan. The Udinese player, who has yet to find the net at home in the current campaign, is the midfielder with the second most shots attempted in this season (20, behind only Nico Paz’s 35).

➤ Adrien Rabiot has scored or provided an assist in each of his last four Serie A appearances (three goals and two assists). The only Milan midfielders to have been involved in at least one goal in five consecutive Serie A games since this data was available (since 2004/05) are Hakan Çalhanoglu (in July 2020) and Kaká (in October 2004 and May 2008).

Ones to watch

Starting with Milan, Pulisic ran riot in this fixture last season and his quality will certainly be needed amid the heavy absences. We all know how much of a difference he can make for the Rossoneri and against a struggling Udinese at the back, he will surely aim for goal.

Another player I would keep an eye on is Maignan. It hasn’t been the easiest past few days for him after the red card against Bournemouth and the subsequent (shameful) racial abuse. Udinese away hasn’t always been kind to him on that front either…

For the home side, I’m a huge fan of Mergim Vojvoda and he has caused problems for Milan before, especially when he played for Torino. He has a very good shot and will need to be kept away from opportunities on the edge of the box.

Ekkelenkamp also deserves a mention after his stellar performance at San Siro last season. Of course, he’s yet to score this season as pointed out by the stats, but he has the quality to help Udinese make life a bit more difficult for Milan.

Prediction

We can talk about Udinese’s poor start as much as we like, but the reality is that this won’t be an easy one for Milan, or at least I don’t think so. The absences have reached the point of being overwhelming and although there are still some pillars to rely on, it could be a closer affair than initially expected.