Sampdoria vs. Milan 8/23/21 Serie A Soccer Pick, Odds, and Prediction

Sampdoria and Milan are clashing at Luigi Ferraris in round 1 of the Italian Serie A. Sampdoria is a decent team that is finding their way back to the olden days, and they are now on a 5-game winning streak. Milan has lost only 1 preseason game, but they were solid in the attacking end.

Sampdoria ended last season in 9^th place with 52 points, 52 scored goals, and 54 conceded goals. In their 3 preseason games, Sampdoria has scored 6 goals, while conceding only 2 goals. Sampdoria has a lot of good players in their roster, starting with Quagliarella, their legend, Antonio Candreva, and one of the best young players at the Euro Cup this past summer, Mikkel Damsgaard. There are no injuries or suspensions in Sampdoria as of right now. I think Sampdoria has enough quality to repeat the last season’s result, at least in the attacking end, but I think they will need to improve their defense and conceded fewer goals because that might cost them a lot this season.

Milan ended last season in 2^nd place with 79 points, 74 scored goals, and 41 conceded goals, and that was disappointing to them because they were at the top of the table for a big part of the season. Milan was active on the market in the offseason, and they are making moves to increase their quality and depth on both ends. The biggest loss for Milan is definitely Donnarumma, their goalkeeper who left for PSG this summer. With Ibrahimovic, Rebic, and Giroud in the attacking end, Milan will be a dangerous team because each of these 3 players can score a lot of goals, but they will need to wait a bit to play together because Ibrahimovic is still injured. Milan has sold Calhanoglu to Inter, and that was the player who assisted for a lot of goals this season, but they are working on a transfer to sign Vlasic from CSKA Moscow, and that would be a great transfer for them. I think Milan will win the title this season, but it will be tough, and we are yet to see how if Milan can replace Donnarumma.

Sampdoria hasn’t lost any of their last 5 home games, and they are on a 5-game winning streak. Milan is not in a bad form, and they are the better team here, but I’m not sure they are there just yet. I’m taking goals in this one.