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Champions League Preview: BATE Borisov v AC Milan
The Italian champions will look to bag another three points towards qualifying from Group H on Tuesday, as their Belarusian hosts seek a first group stage win at the 10th attempt
By Livio Caferoglu
Baga, Simic, Yurevich, Bordachev
Volodko, Bressan, Kontosevoi, Olekhnovich
Abate, Nesta, Silva, Zambrotta
Nocerino, Van Bommel, Aquilani
Massimiliano Allegri has a building injury list to contend with, starting with Antonio Cassano as his latest casualty. The Italy forward has been hospitalised since Saturday evening after feeling unwell on the flight back to Milan following their win over Roma, and as a result is a doubt for the match. In addition, Philippe Mexes may miss out with a broken hand, while Luca Antonini is likely to be unavailable as he continues to recover from a twisted ankle.
However, there is no such news on Mathieu Flamini, who will remain on the treatment table for the foreseeable future. Gennaro Gattuso will serve the last match of his suspension, incurred during last season's tie with Tottenham Hotspur in the second round of the competition, but is also suffering from a recently contracted eye injury in any case.
Clarence Seedorf and Alexandre Pato have both been declared fit and may feature at some point during the encounter on Tuesday, although it is expected that Allegri will name the same side that claimed victory at the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday.
Meanwhile for BATE, they named an experimental line-up against Vitebsk on Thursday, after securing a sixth consecutive Belarusian league title on October 23. On the injury front for Viktor Goncharenko's men, Yegor Filipenko, Vitali Rodionov, Evgeni Kuntsevich and Alexsandr Pavlov are all out of contention, nursing lengthy injury setbacks.
||DID YOU KNOW?|
- AC Milan will confirm their place in the last 16 if they better Viktoria Plzen's result against Barcelona.
- The Serie A champions have won five games on the bounce, scoring 16 in the process.
- Zlatan Ibrahimovic's strike against BATE a fortnight ago was Milan's 200th Champions League goal.
- Massimiliano Allegri's side have lost just two of their past 13 European away fixtures, drawing seven of them.
- BATE will be eliminated from the competition if they fail to beat Milan and Barcelona win at Plzen.
- The Belarusians have conceded eight goals in Group H, the highest in the tournament.
- However, they won a sixth consecutive Belarusian championship by beating Torpedo Zhodino 4-2 a week ago.
- BATE have kept 18 clean sheets in 30 league matches this season.
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Top 3 Predictions
BATE 0-3 AC Milan
- 32.75 %
BATE 0-2 AC Milan
- 20.16 %
BATE 1-3 AC Milan
- 13.76 %
|UEFA Champions League (UCL)||Nov 1, 2011||BATE 1 - AC Milan 1|
|UEFA Champions League (UCL)||Oct 19, 2011||AC Milan 2 - BATE 0|
|Feb 21, 2013||Fenerbahce 1 - BATE 0||EL|
|Feb 14, 2013||BATE 0 - Fenerbahce 0||EL|
|Dec 5, 2012||FC Bayern München 4 - BATE 1||UCL|
|Nov 20, 2012||BATE 0 - LOSC Lille Métropole 2||UCL|
|Nov 7, 2012||Valencia CF 4 - BATE 2||UCL|
|Returns:||BATE Borisov £150.00||Sign up with William Hill for a free bet up to £25|
|Returns:||Draw £37.50||Sign up with bet365 for a free bet up to £200|
|Returns:||Milan £55.00||Sign up with William Hill for a free bet up to £25|
|2||Mattia De Sciglio||Defender|
|76||Mario Alberto Yepes||Defender|
|-||Simone Andrea Ganz||Striker|
The young Brazilian midfielder enjoyed a breakout year for BATE last season, where his goalscoring displays from the middle of the park inspired his side to a fifth-consecutive title victory, also picking up the top scorer accolade in the process. Bressan has since continued his rich vein of form in domestic matters, helping his team to a sixth title in the past week.
Despite being overshadowed in recent games, Ibrahimovic regained the spotlight in style over the weekend with a dominant performance against Roma, scoring twice. He has also performed impressively in Europe thus far, showcasing his talents against both Viktoria Plzen and BATE, bagging two goals, including a man-of-the-match display against the Czechs on matchday two. He will look to build on his predatory form once more on Tuesday.
The Italian champions should face little trouble in earning a comfortable victory on their travels, as Allegri now has a settled squad at his disposal that is continuing to grow in stature. Despite BATE lifting another league title of late, they are unlikely to be strong enough to match the Serie A giants.