PARTITA RINVIATA: Milan-Juventus “Nuovo” orario d’inizio, pronostico, news sulle squadre, formazioni

Two Serie A giants will convene on Saturday evening, as AC Milan welcome Juventus to San Siro.

Milan slipped six points behind Juve after a six-goal thriller with Cagliari just before the break,

while the Bianconeri’s latest Turin derby win kept them in a six-way scrap for top spot.

Summing up their defensive frailties this season, Milan conceded right at the start and then at the very

end of their final fixture before international football intervened – an absorbing 3-3 draw down in Cagliari.

Revived by his showing in the Rossoneri’s shock Champions League win over Real Madrid a few days earlier,

Rafael Leao scored twice, before Tammy Abraham’s second-half strike seemed set to wrap up victory;

however, Gabriele Zappa completed a brilliant brace in the 90th minute and the spoils were ultimately shared.

As a result, Milan’s tally of 18 points is only good enough for seventh spot in the standings,

leaving them eight adrift of Napoli at the Serie A summit – albeit with one game in hand.

Even if the second-city club topple Juventus this weekend,

their points total after 12 matches would be lower than in each of the last four years,

and head coach Paulo Fonseca has inevitably faced criticism.

With Slovan Bratislava, Red Star Belgrade, Girona and Dinamo Zagreb next up on the schedule in Europe,

a Champions League playoff place seems well within their grasp,

but losing on Saturday evening would see them fall further behind Italy’s top six.

Milan may have conceded just two goals in their last seven league games against Juve,

but keeping the back door shut on this occasion may be asking a lot of Serie A’s eighth-best defence.

Just before the break, Juventus continued their long dominance of city rivals Torino,

extending a record run in the Derby della Mole to 19 games without defeat.

Goals from Timothy Weah and Kenan Yildiz decided the Turin derby in the Bianconeri’s favour,

keeping them within two points of top spot after a dozen matches.

For all their flaws and injury issues, Juve have made an unbeaten start to the Serie A season,

both drawing and winning six games, and they are in the thick of a potentially fascinating title race

six teams are currently separated by two points.

Thiago Motta’s men – who sit just above Milan in the Champions League table

have kept four clean sheets in the first five away fixtures of their top-flight campaign,

though they conceded four goals in a wild Derby d’Italia against Inter.

Returning to San Siro this week, Juventus will aim to avoid such an uncharacteristic loss of control,

as victory would not only boost their own Scudetto hopes but also strike a huge blow to Milan’s.