Next Sunday, 30th of November 2014, two Italian powerhouses, AC Milan and Udinese, will measure forces at the emblematic San Siro for round 13 of the Serie A, a match of the utmost importance for the Rossoneri, who have failed to grant a league win since they defeated Verona more than one month ago.

The glamour of AC Milan’s quality season start is now long gone and their new manager, Filippo Inzaghi, is now experiencing some difficulties to motivate his players and guide them to wins once again. After a 2-2 draw at Luigi Ferrari on a splendid match against Sampdoria three weeks ago, AC Milan failed to clinch the three points once again, when they faced their neighbours and all-time rivals of Inter Milan last weekend. It was a very drab match and although Inzaghi’s boys managed to get an early lead, they failed to secure the win. The irreverent Menez opened the score on 23rd minute with an outstanding effort from inside the box after a low cross from the Italian wonderboy El-Shaarawi, but all the enthusiasm went down the drain when Joel Obi’s left foot shot ended up inside the net, after a dreadful interception from AC Milan’s defence line.

It is fair to say that Filippo Inzaghi brought some new dynamics to AC Milan’s game and that, most of the times, they display some excellent moments of football. Nevertheless, something is missing in the team and Inzaghi needs to find a solution for his side’s leaky defence line that has been seriously compromising the team’s overall good performances.

Their upcoming clash against Udinese will certainly be far from easy and, for that particular match, Inzaghi will probably still not be able to rely on the contribution of Abate, who remains sidelined because of injury.

As for Udinese, despite their positive overall Serie A campaign so far, they are not going through the best of times, as they have failed to win any of their last four league matches. After their 1-1 draw at Palermo three weeks ago, Udinese failed again to secure the three points last weekend when they entertained the fragile Chievo side at Stadio Friuli.

Andrea Stramaccioni, the young Italian manager who arrived at Udine this Summer, will need to figure out something very quickly, in order to put his team back on track and to restore that initial stamina that Udinese displayed earlier this season.

Despite their lack of wins, AC Milan are firm favourites for the next Sunday’s clash, although, every time two Italian powerhouses go head-to-head, it is difficult to predict the match's outcome.

AC Milan

Stats: W-1 L-1 D-3

Recent Form - DDWLD

Udinese

Stats: W-0 L-3 D-2

Recent Form - DLDLL

Possible Line-ups

AC Milan (4-3-3) - Diego Lopez - Abate - Alex - Mexes - De Sciglio - Andrea Poli - De Jong - Bonaventura - Keisuke Honda - El Shaarawy - Jeremy Menez

Udinese (4-3-1-2) - Karnezis - Piris - Danilo - Heurtaux - Domizzi -  Badu - Allan - Pinzi - Guilherme - Di Natale - Thereau

Prediction

AC Milan 2 Udinese 1