Preview: Cagliari vs AC Milan - prediction, team news, lineups

Starting 2026 with a chance to seize the Serie A summit from their fierce city rivals, AC Milan will visit Cagliari on Friday.

Undefeated in Italy’s top flight since August, the Rossoneri can climb above Inter Milan with a fourth win from five league games, and they generally enjoy a sojourn in Sardinia.

Match preview

Having fallen at the first hurdle of their Supercoppa Italiana defence, meekly losing 2-0 to eventual winners Napoli in the semi-final, Milan then made some amends by claiming three points from their final Serie A fixture of 2025.

Briefly taking back top spot from old foes Inter, the Rossoneri struck three times within 10 minutes against Hellas Verona: main man Christian Pulisic broke the deadlock before Christopher Nkunku finally ended his wait for an elusive Serie A strike by scoring twice.

In the thick of a closely contested title race - in which just four points separate the top five - Max Allegri’s men are showing signs that the Scudetto could be a realistic target, and they have no cup competitions left to concern them.

After finishing dismally last term, Milan have recovered from an opening loss to go 15 league matches without defeat this season - their best such streak since the 2021-22 campaign.

With Allegri trusting a core group of players - led by the likes of Luka Modric, Pulisic and captain Mike Maignan - no team across Europe’s top five leagues has made fewer substitutions, adding to a sense of stability.

Milan’s highly successful head coach now returns to Cagliari, where he was manager from July 2008 to April 2010, taking charge of 74 games before leaving for his first spell at San Siro.

While they are unbeaten in 14 league meetings with this week’s hosts, the Rossoneri failed to win either contest last term: memorably, Cagliari fought back for a 3-3 home draw when Gabriele Zappa bagged a second-half brace.

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To date, there have been 46 encounters between the two teams in Sardinia, and the hosts have only won five. In fact, their most recent success against Milan was a 2-1 victory back in May 2017, featuring a last-gasp winner from Fabio Pisacane.

Now in charge of the Rossoblu, the rookie coach has been tasked with keeping them afloat in Italy’s top flight and extending their Serie A stay to three straight seasons.

Leaving them precariously placed, just above the drop zone, Cagliari had won just one of their last 12 league matches before travelling up to Turin last weekend.

Despite going behind, Pisacane’s side eventually prevailed against Torino, as Matteo Prati ended his long top-flight goal drought before Semih Kilicsoy struck the winner midway through a tense second half.

Sitting 14th in the standings, a familiar struggle for survival still awaits in 2026, and the Isolani will kick off a new calendar year by hosting one of Calcio’s biggest clubs.

Cagliari Serie A form:

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Cagliari form (all competitions):

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AC Milan Serie A form:

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AC Milan form (all competitions):

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Team News

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Milan hope to have Rafael Leao involved on Friday, as the injury-plagued forward has rejoined full training; however, Matteo Gabbia and Santiago Gimenez are still unavailable.

With Leao short of fitness, Pulisic should partner Nkunku up front in Allegri’s preferred 3-5-2 formation.

The American was one of only four players to register three Serie A braces in 2025, while Nkunku has just scored his first league goals since finding the net for Chelsea in February.

Meanwhile, Cagliari can welcome Juan Rodriguez and Yerry Mina back from illness but are still missing several men, including Andrea Belotti, Ze Pedro, Mattia Felici and Michael Folorunsho. 

The latter has just undergone surgery on an MCL injury and will be sidelined for several weeks, while Angola winger Zito Luvumbo is away at the Africa Cup of Nations.

After scoring in both of his last two games, Kilicsoy is set to lead the hosts’ attack, supported by either Gianluca Gaetano, Gennaro Borrelli or Inter-owned Sebastiano Esposito.

Cagliari possible starting lineup:

Caprile; Zappa, Mina, Luperto; Palestra, Adopo, Deiola, Prati, Idrissi; Esposito, Kilicsoy

AC Milan possible starting lineup:

Maignan; Tomori, De Winter, Pavlovic; Saelemaekers, Loftus-Cheek, Modric, Rabiot, Bartesaghi; Pulisic, Nkunku

We say: Cagliari 0-2 AC Milan

Although Milan recently went through a run of leaking goals, last week's clean sheet suggests that normal service should be resumed.

Allegri's disciplined defence will provide the platform for another win in Cagliari, taking his team back to the top - at least for a couple of days.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.