The five key battles that could win or lose the game for Milan against Atalanta

AC Milan face perhaps their biggest litmus test of the season so far as they make the short trip to Bergamo to face high-flying Atalanta.

Milan are looking and no doubt feeling much better after victories over Slovan Bratislava, Empoli and Sassuolo, but facing Atalanta is a very different proposition given they have won eight in the spin.

In many ways this is a moment of truth to see how much the Rossoneri have progressed, given La Dea are second and on a roll. The results speak for themselves: 5-1 against Genoa, 6-1 against Verona, 3-0 against Napoli away from home and most recently a 2-0 win at Roma.

The five key battles

As Arrigo Sacchi highlighted in his pre-match analysis, the key for Milan will be to stay narrow and compact as a unit, to reduce the space available to the Atalanta forwards.

With that, we come to the first duel. Ademola Lookman is on fire with seven goals and four assists in the league already this season, and he is among the Serie A players with the most goal contributions (30, 19G + 11A) in the calendar year of 2024.

The Nigeria international is expected to partner Charles De Ketelaere up front, and that means Matteo Gabbia should be tasked with nullifying him. It will be a tough examination for the Italian defender, but he has been in excellent form this year too so will aim to continue that.