It is matchday three in the UEFA Champions League and FC Porto welcome Italian giants and seven-time Champions League winners AC Milan to the Estádio do Dragão. Milan have narrowly lost both of their games in the competition so far but are unbeaten in Serie A and only Napoli have conceded less goals.
To get the lowdown on the Rossoneri and what Porto can expect, Próxima Jornada caught up with the exceptional Patrick Kendrick, who is an interpreter, commentator, reporter and host of the official AC Milan podcast.
The Season So Far
“Milan’s performances have been very good, they had a bit of a scare on the weekend vs Hellas Verona, for the second year running bizarrely, but that’s because Milan are missing a lot of players. They were 2-0 down at half-time but came back to win 3-2, so it was a really good response and it’s not the first time they’ve produced something similar.”
“They’ve been really solid defensively which has been impressive. The one game they have dropped points in (in Serie A) was against Juventus, they went 1-0 down then equalised before having a big chance to win it near the end, Wojciech Szczęsny made a really good save.”
“A big miss for Milan is Mike Maignan, the former Lille goalkeeper has recently had wrist surgery and is out for around 10 weeks, Theo Hernández and Brahim Diaz are both out with COVID-19.”
“Samu Castillejo came back in from the cold and produced a man of the match performance off the bench on the weekend, he won the penalty and he had a hand in the third goal too. Rafael Leão, who has started the season wonderfully will be wanting to produce a big performance in Portugal as he bids to make himself a fixture in the senior national side.”
You can see Leão and Castillejo link up below
What To Expect
“Milan travel very well. They had the best record away from home last season in Serie A, taking a massive 49 points from a possible 57” (10 more away points than Inter).
“They’ll go for it tonight at the Dragão because they believe they’re a better team than Porto. Portuguese football is not held in particularly high regard in Italy and on top of that, it’s must win for Milan, they want to take six points from the next two matches because they lost the first two.”
A big thanks to Patrick Kendrick for his insight into Milan, you can catch him on Twitter at @PatrickKendrick and stay updated with his latest work!
