AC Milan and Juventus will renew their rivalry at San Siro on Sunday night in a game that has big top four implications.
In truth, the game between Milan and Juventus isn’t quite as big as it could have been. Massimiliano Allegri’s side had almost every result go their way in the last round, which allowed them to open up an eight-point gap over fifth place, with five games to go.
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Juventus were the only other team around the Rossoneri that won, beating Bologna to move five clear of fifth themselves. So, the bookmakers would have the two teams as big favourites to book their spot in the Champions League, alongside Inter and Napoli.
Yet, games between the Diavolo and the Old Lady are never light-hearted affairs, and both sides will see it as a chance to land a final big punch before the season ends to potentially spark a collapse they can later poke fun at. For Milan especially, there are scores to settle.
A long dry spell
A statistic has emerged in the build-up to the game that actually needed to be verified because of how unbelievable it sounds: almost three years have passed since Milan’s last goal against Juventus in Serie A. By the time Sunday comes around, 1,064 days will have passed.
The Rossoneri’s last goal against the Bianconeri dates back to 28 May 2023, the penultimate round, which was a decisive one in securing a Champions League spot under the then-head coach Stefano Pioli.
It was the season after Milan had won the Scudetto, and Allegri was still the man in charge in Turin. The game at the Allianz Stadium ended 0-1, thanks to a trademark header from Olivier Giroud, the scorer of so many important goals.
Since then, Milan have not scored against Juventus in the league. Of the last five matches against the Zebre three have ended 0-0, including the first leg this season, while Juventus have won twice by scores of 0-1 (2023-24) and 2-0 (2024-25).
One caveat is that Milan did beat their rivals in January of last year, in the semi-final of the Supercoppa Italiana. Kenan Yildiz opened the scoring, before a Christian Pulisic penalty and a Federico Gatti own-goal turned the game on its head inside five second-half minutes.
The last time that the home fans at San Siro celebrated beating Juve was back in October 2022, with the Scudetto shield freshly stitched on the chests of the Milan players. Fikayo Tomori and Brahim Diaz got the goals that night, and a look at the team is intriguing.
While Tomori remains a key pillar, Brahim headed back to Real Madrid to become a starter for the biggest club in the world. Ciprian Tatarusanu was in goal and Pierre Kalulu was at right-back, a player that will face his old team at the weekend.
Matteo Gabbia and Theo Hernandez were the left side of the back four, with Ismael Bennacer, Sandro Tonali and Tommaso Pobega the three in midfield, with the latter advanced. Rafael Leao and Brahim support Giroud in attack.
The bench featured some names that you can make your own assessments on: Malick Thiaw, Fode Ballo-Toure, Sergino Dest, Tiemoue Bakayoko, Rade Krunic, Yacine Adli, Aster Vranckx, Charles De Ketelaere, Ante Rebic and Divock Origi.
A drought within a drought
What hopes do Milan have of putting their Juventus hoodoo to bed? A look at recent form is not particularly encouraging. The Rossoneri have lost four of their last eight games, scoring only seven goals across that run and failing to score in the quartet of losses.
The attack is really struggling at the moment, so much so that Adrien Rabiot is the top scorer in 2026 with five goals in Serie A. He was the one who provided the decisive moment last Sunday as well, slotting home from Leao’s assist to secure a 1-0 win in Verona.
The last Milan forward to have scored was Leao on March 1 and it was a tap-in right at the end in a 2-0 win over Cremonese. Since then there has been nothing, and this lack of firepower has made itself felt in the crucial phase of the season.
Paradoxically, Allegri has spent most of the season with one or multiple forwards out. Now, he has five strikers that have been fit for the last few games, butnone of them are scoring whaterver the cominbation.
Christian Pulisic hasn’t scored since the first leg against Verona, and that was December 28th of last year. He’s now gone 15 games without a goal, one less than his career-highest goalless streak with Chelsea in 2022-23.
Those who could replace him – Santiago Gimenez, Christopher Nkunku and Niclas Füllkrug – are hardly inspiring the confidence of the fans or the coach either, clearly.
Nkunku has started only once in the last two months and hasn’t scored since Bologna-Milan, back on February 3 (a penalty). Against Verona on Sunday he came on late, when the entire Milan team were set on defending the lead, the kind of situation that doesn’t help many forwards.
Gimenez also came on, and in 27 minutes he managed four completed passes. He is back from a long injury but has so far not looked up to speed. It says a lot about Füllkrug therefore that he didn’t come on, even if he did play 180 minutes across the three matches against Torino, Napoli and Udinese.
Circling back to Leao, he has only ever scored once against Juventus, and that was back in his first season (2019-20, the 4-2 comeback win) in 13 games. Pulisic, meanwhile, has just that goal in the Supercoppa.
So, if you are planning on backing Milan to end their drought against the Bianconeri, you might want to think outside the box. Fikayo Tomori has scored a couple of times in eight games against them, which is not a bad record.
Or maybe, as would be poetic in many ways, the Crazy Horse will pop up to hurt his old club and send the Rossoneri galloping towards the Champions League promised land.