Juventus vs AC Milan preview, team news, tickets & prediction
On matchday 21 of the 2024/25 Italian Serie A season, football fans will witness another Juventus vs AC Milan match.
This will be the 243rd time that both teams will face off against each other, further extending the matchup’s record as the most-played fixture in Italy.
Both teams are the two most successful in Italy, winning multiple league and European titles combined. Their rivalry is not considered as big as the Derby d’Italia between Juventus and Internazionale Milano, AC Milan’s neighbours, but it is a pivotal one in the history of the sport in the country.
Every clash is packed and full of drama, but unfortunately, the 242nd edition was not.
Played in November 2024 on matchday 13, neither side managed to find the net in a drab 0-0 draw. One reason could be that Juventus travelled to Milan without a striker thanks to injuries to their players in that position. This led Juventus manager, Thiago Motta, to set up a free-form, strikerless forward line with Teun Koopmeiners and Kenan Yıldız heading the attack.
Both players caused problems early in the game but the hosts were up to par. Milan were also up to par in attack, and their first knock on Juventus’ door came from Álvaro Morata, who headed wide after Rafael Leão found him with an inventive cross to the back post.
The rest of the first half went by without much action after these chances, but things began to open up after the restart. Juventus’ Andrea Cambiaso forced Milan’s Malick Thiaw to make a last ditch block to stop him from finding the target from close range.
Juventus controlled possession for most of the game and their hosts struggled to break them down. However, home advantage counted in the favour as they had the much better ending to the match despite not finding a way through.
Juventus ended the match without a loss while the draw felt like a loss for Milan. In the end, both managers took home some important lessons for their reverse fixture, which is what fans are preparing to witness.
Read on for match ticket information as well as team news, prediction for the starting XIs of both teams and the final scoreline of the game.
Match tickets
AC Milan will travel to Turin on 19 January 2025 to face Juventus in the latest iteration of their rivalry. As usual, Juventus tickets will sell out because of the rivalry—Italy’s two most successful clubs going head to head is surely going to be a banger.
Fans can visit Juventus’ or AC Milan’s websites to apply for seats at the Allianz Stadium, Turin, where the game is scheduled to be played. The Juventus vs AC Milan tickets for the match will be balloted for, which means that early indication and payment is key to securing seats at the match.
Because of the global stature of both clubs, they also have fans who attend their matches from outside Turin and Milan. These non-local fans who come from all walks of life and from around the world will, unfortunately, be given less privileges than local fans. Only if they are registered will they be able to purchase tickets from the clubs’ websites and official channels or partner platforms.
This leaves them with ticket resale websites as their best chance of securing seats at the game. Non-local fans who are registered can try for tickets on official channels, but non-registered fans, whether local or non-local, can buy tickets off fans using ticket resale websites.
Team news
With the exception of Ismaël Bennacer and Alessandro Florenzi who have been out of commission for most of the season—Florenzi has been out for almost two years—Paulo Fonseca should be travelling to Turin with a full strength AC Milan squad. The Portuguese tactician has managed to carry his team this far without either of them, which means their additions will only be a boost. Bennacer is scheduled for a return to training in January, however, but his participation in the game is not expected.
Meanwhile, the return of Douglas Luiz to action last December has given Thiago Motta a huge boost. His squad is almost complete, bar defenders Bremer and Juan Cabal, who are recovering from cruciate ligament injuries and will be out of commission until very late in the season. One player he will be very careful with as the AC Milan match approaches, however, is Arkadiusz Milik.
The Poland international, once hailed as Robert Lewandowski’s replacement, has struggled with form and fitness everywhere he goes for some years now. His quality allows him to keep getting minutes but Motta will risk another injury if he does not manage him well, with the AC Milan clash on the horizon.
Line-ups
Milik might be finally ready for big games but Dusan Vlahovic is Juventus’ number 9. He will get the nod in big games such as these, as a result.
At AC Milan, we expect Noah Okafor to come off the bench in the game, which means one of Samuel Chukwueze or Yunus Musah gets the nod in the starting XI.
Here is how we expect the teams to line up for this matchday 21 Serie A 2024/25 fixture.
Juventus: Di Gregorio; Savona, Gatti, Kalulu, Danilo; Locatelli, Thuram; Conceição, Koopmeimers, Yıldız; Vlahovic.
AC Milan: Maignan; Hernandez, Thiaw, Gabbia, Emerson; Reinjders, Fofana; Leão, Pulisic, Musah; Morata.
Prediction
As stated earlier, Juventus under Thiago Motta have been disappointing for fans and neutrals to watch. The team possesses the firepower—as seen in their Champions League victory over Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City—but are so defensive that they do not exploit it. This general trend makes their reverse fixture with AC Milan a little bit easier to call as a draw.
The only thing that could change the trajectory of this match is if Milan themselves are willing to come out to attack and get one or two goals on the board. We have seen Juventus respond positively to these sorts of “provocations” from other teams.
Juventus 1-1 AC Milan.
