photo by Erik Forsberg

• by Sanjay Motwani, writing from Mumbai, India

AC Milan, last week annihilated Arsenal at San Siro with a thomping 4-0 scoreline in the first leg of Champions League. Arsenal looking quite good in the first 10 minutes, but after Kevin Prince Boateng's goal Arsenal seemed to have lost their confidence on field. No defence breaking passes by midfielders, poor defence organisation and even less co-ordination. Milan while having the opposite characteristics of Arsenal, they were without a doubt the best team on the pitch and best Milan team since last 2 years quoted Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Juventus played out a draw against Parma in mid-week and managing to win against Catania 3-1. Juventus should be praised for their mid-field lineup with the likes of Andrea Pirlo, Gianluigi Buffon, Arturo Vidal and Claudio Marchisio playing an important role for Juve's undefeated run in Serie A. Juventus under Antonio Conte is not one-dimensional team. Juve have undergone various transitions in their playing style to remain undefeated this year, which everyone would praise, including Milan manager Max Allegri.

AC Milan will be missing their key player Zlatan Ibrahimovic because of his three-match suspension, although Milan making efforts to lower his ban to 2 games which is not quite possible now. Milan may also miss Kevin Prince Boateng and Pato for the services, according to latest reports. AC Milan may start with a 4-3-1-2 formation while Juventus will go 4-4-2 formation. If AC Milan wants to win, my preferred starters on front would be El Shaarawy and Robinho with Urby Emmanuelson playing as trequarista. If Juventus wants to win, they just need to make sure that their strikers have proper finishing in front of the goal and preferred starters would be Matri and Quagliarella with Giaccherini as trequarista.

This match is not just the battle of 3 points, It's the match for gaining psychological advantage over your rivals, which is definitely a booster for the Serie A race. Milan will be almost done up with the hard fixtures part after Juventus, but Juve's unbelievable run should be kept in mind too. Whomsoever maybe the winner but, unexpected twists always happen in Serie A.

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