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Milan hoping to bounce back to winning ways

AC Milan will be hoping to bounce back to winning ways at home to Udinese on Friday night in a bid to re-ignite their faltering league title aspirations.

Milan have not won in their last four matches in all competitions and have picked up only two points from their last three league matches.

That run also saw a shadow side beaten 1-0 at home by Udinese in the quarter-finals of the Italian Cup.

In fact Milan have lost their last three matches against the northerners, including a 1-0 reverse in Udine earlier this season.

In mid-January the seven-time European champions looked in rude health, through to the last eight of the Italian Cup, the last 16 in the Champions League and closing in on league leaders Inter Milan, holding a deficit of six points but with a game in hand.

But their recent run has seen them slip to 11 points behind the champions, although still with a game in hand — but a tricky one at that, away to Fiorentina later this month.

They desperately need a victory to cut the gap to eight points and give themselves some hope of pushing Inter down the straight.

All seemed lost following the 0-0 draw against Bologna last weekend, a second straight draw against lowly opponents, which left Milan 10 points behind their bitter city neighbours.

But the champions were held to a surprise 1-1 draw at Parma on Wednesday and while the title race is hardly back on, there is a glimmer of hope for Milan.

But with young Brazilian forward Pato still missing, the rossoneri lack both his cut and thrust and his pace up front.

Coach Leonardo has been playing former England captain David Beckham in an advanced position on the right hand side of an attacking trio but that has not borne fruit as he and right-back Ignazio Abate have failed to link up well while Brazilian Mancini, who replaced Beckham in the home draw with Bologna at the weekend, fared no better.

The team not only needs a win to boost their hopes but also to improve confidence ahead of next week’s plum Champions League clash against Manchester United, also at the San Siro.

And it is because of that match, on Tuesday, that this game was brought forward to Friday night, a first in Italian football.

The league has decided to do what it can to help its teams prepare for crucial European encounters, and have given Milan an extra day’s rest — an important boost since Man United have the weekend off due as they have been knocked out of the FA Cup.

But first to domestic matters and Milan centre-back Thiago Silva is convinced that this will be a tough match.

‘In the away game in Udine we played well but Udinese scored and at the end they bettered us only in the result,’ he said.

‘It will be an interesting game, not least because they’re coming into it off the back of a sensational result against Napoli (a 3-1 victory) while we’re trying to get back to winning ways.’

To do so, Milan will have to stop Antonio Di Natale, the Italy forward who hit a hat-trick against Napoli, hit the winner earlier in the season against Milan and is the top scorer in Serie A.’

It won’t be easy but if Milan harbour any ambitions this season, these are the type of games they have to start winning with more regularity.