Milan To Stumble Against Sampdoria

Sampdoria take on the sleeping giants that look to finally be rising from their slumber in Milan on Sunday, although it may come too late to rescue the season for Filippo Inzaghi’s side.

Form
Last weekend’s 2-1 victory away to Palermo was a second in succession for Milan thanks to goals from Alessio Cerci and a late winner from Jeremy Menez after the sought-after Paulo Dybala had equalised from the penalty spot for the hosts. It’s now only one defeat in the last seven games for the Rossoneri although their progress up the table has been slow as they’ve drawn as many as they’ve won over that run and are still seven points adrift of the European places, thanks largely the fact they’ve the worst away record of any side in the top half of Serie A.

Menez has been the one real success story of Milan’s season, with the Frenchman just one goal behind Carlos Tevez in the race to be Capocannoniere this season having bagged 16 league goals, including four in his last four appearances.

Sampdoria currently lie in the fifth place in Serie A, the last that ensures qualification for European football next season with the Champions League spots probably beyond them now as Lazio hold a seven-point cushion. A 2-0 defeat to Fiorentina in Florence last weekend saw the in-form Viola leapfrog Sampdoria into fourth place and brought an end to their run of four wins on the bounce while also keeping clean sheets in the last three of those victories although they remain the lowest scorers in the top half of the table.

Brazilian-born striker Eder, who recently made his debut and scored for the Italian national team, is the club’s leading scorer this term with nine Serie A goals.

Team News
Milan boss Filippo Inzaghi has a long list of injury problems to contend with, as Sulley Muntari and Keisuke Honda have both been ruled out for this game along with Stephan El Shaarawy, Riccardo Montolivo and Cristian Zaccardo. There are doubts, also, regarding the fitness of Michael Essien Adil Rami and Cristian Zapata but Giancomo Bonaventura should feature.

Luca Rizzo is expected to shake off a minor injury concern to take part but manager Sinisa Mihajlovic still has doubts over goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano and defender Fabrizio Cacciatore.

Head to Head
The two played out an entertaining 2-2 draw at the Luigi Ferraris stadium last November, with Eder and Menez both amongst the goals although it’s now only one win in eight matches against Milan for Sampdoria, a 1-0 victory at the San Siro back in 2012.

The Rossoneri have won four of those eight games, while both teams have failed to score in five of the last six clashes.

Recommended Bets
Milan’s recent run makes them just about worthy of the even money available on a home win, even though Samp look a bit too big at 31/10 considering they inflicted a 2-0 defeat on second-placed Roma in their last away game.

With that in mind the pick of the bets here are the 5/6 on the double chance of draw and Sampdoria with the same price available on both teams scoring also well worth a punt.

Menez stands out like a sore thumb in the goalscorers market too with 4/1 to score first and 6/5 to score anytime a price hard to ignore for a player enjoying such a purple patch.