AC Milan will start their 2025-26 campaign on Sunday evening, facing Bari in the Coppa Italia preliminaries, and a win is needed to advance to the next round.
After a decent pre-season, you could even say positive, it’s time for the proper season. Max Allegri and his men are starting a week earlier than the rivals due to the 8th-place finish, forced to participate in the Coppa Italia preliminaries.
Bari are up first and in the event of a win, Milan will face Lecce in the next round at the end of September (at which point, a spot in the round of 16 will be at stake). There was no pre-match presser, but the gaffer did speak to MilanTV ahead of the game.
Team news
In terms of suspension and injuries, there are none on the player side of things, but the same cannot be said for the manager’s dugout. Indeed, Allegri will have to sit in the stands as he has a two-game ban in the Coppa Italia, following the red card in the final in 2023-24 (which he won with Juve).
Alex Jimenez has been a bit of a question mark during pre-season due to a few minor injuries and, subsequently, a sub-optimal condition. However, he has been training with the team in the last few days and should thus be available for the game.
The new signings Koni De Winter and Zachary Athekame are also expected to be called up, despite only working with the team for a few days. Of course, they won’t play from start and might not even come off the bench, but they will be there for the first time at San Siro.
As for the starting XI, it looks like Allegri will go with a three-man backline, fielding Fikayo Tomori, Matteo Gabbia and Strahinja Pavlovic at the back. Alexis Saelemaekers and Pervis Estupinan should be the wing-backs, which makes sense given the former’s attacking-minded style.
In midfield, the likes of Samuele Ricci, Youssouf Fofana and Ruben Loftus-Cheek should get the nod ahead of Ardon Jashari and Luka Modric. The reason is simply, really: they are in better condition and have worked more with the team this summer.
Finally, Christian Pulisic was a doubt due to his ankle injury but it looks like he will start alongside Rafael Leao in the front two. Santiago Gimenez will also be on the bench if Allegri decides to change thing mid-game, but from start, it will be similar to some of the friendlies we have seen.
Predicted Milan XI (3-5-2): Maignan; Tomori, Gabbia, Pavlovic; Saelemaekers, Loftus-Cheek, Ricci, Fofana, Estupinan; Pulisic, Leao.
The opponents
Last season was a rather dull one from a Bari fan’s perspective, though in many ways also a relief after what was a very poor 2023-24 campaign. Indeed, they only managed to stay up thanks to a relegation play-off win, beating Ternana 4-1 on aggregate.
When you put it like that, the 9th-place finish in 2024-25 sounds a lot better, especially when you consider they were just four points behind the promotion play-offs. Still, the decision was made to part ways with head coach Moreno Longo after the season.
The 46-year-old Fabio Caserta has been brought in to replace him after leading Catanzaro, the club Mattia Liberali just joined, to a 6th-place finish and the semi-finals of the promotion play-offs. If you ask Allegri, improvement has already been made.
“We’ll have to have great respect for Bari, who are a well-organised team with a good coach. They’ve had a good summer pre-season,” Allegri said.
In terms of the squad, well, there aren’t that many notable names if we’re being honest. Gaston Pereiro and Christian Gytkjaer stand out from the rest, given their experience in Serie A, while loan deals were reached for Matthias Braunöder (Como) and Riccardo Pagano (Roma).
On the left-hand side, Mehdi Dorval has also caught our attention lately after being linked with the likes of Napoli and Sassuolo in the past. With four goals and six assists last season, it’s easy to see why this is the case.
Predicted Bari XI (4-3-3): Cerofolini; Dickmann, Vicari, Nikolaou, Dorval; Verreth, Braunoder, Pagano; Partipilo, Moncini, Rao.
Head to head
Considering that this is the first game between Milan and Bari since 2011, you can probably already tell that there haven’t been loads of encounters in recent times (only nine games in the 2000s). Bari were in the top flight quite a lot in the 80s and 90s, though, facing Milan 76 times in total.
The Rossoneri have prevailed in 50 (!) of these, with 13 ending in draws and 13 in favour of the Galletti. In short, especially when you consider the differences between the two times in recent times, there is a massive favourite in this clash.
Going back to the most recent clash between the two, it took place in March 2011 and it ended 1-1 at San Siro. Bari took the lead through a cheeky free-kick routine, while Antonio Cassano (of course it was him, with his past at Bari) found the equaliser eventually.
Ones to watch
Starting with Milan, Loftus-Cheek had a very positive pre-season and Allegri clearly likes what he adds to the team. The bursting runs forward are impressive and he will have to do that tomorrow, as it almost always opens up space for his teammates.
While we could name many players in this section really, our second and final Milan pick is Leao. The winger impressed during the pre-season games, even in the loss against Chelsea last time out, and he can make all the difference tomorrow.
For the away side, it goes without saying that the aforementioned Dorval will have an important role on the left flank. Saelemaekers will be defending for Milan there, so maybe the Bari man could target him a lot when going forward.
Moncini is expected to be the starting striker for Bari, not Gytkjaer, so it makes sense to mention him here. He only scored five goals with Brescia last season, but he could perhaps find some open space in the Milan defence.
Prediction
It probably won’t be a walk in the park for Milan, with it being the first game and all, but they should really advance comfortably. On paper, there is a massive difference between these two sides and that should really show on the pitch tomorrow. If not, then something is wrong.
Milan 2-0 Bari
