Ruben Amorim believes his San Siro debut with AC Milan will be a special day, but the Portuguese coach is under no illusions about the threat Venezia will pose to his side's perfect start.

Amorim opened his tenure with a 2-1 victory over Torino, with Adrien Rabiot starring through a goal and an assist. Now the 40-year-old is preparing for his first home match in front of the Rosson' faithful, a fixture that carries its own piece of history: only eight Milan managers have ever won their first two Serie A matches after debuting at the start of a season, and just two have done so in the three-points-for-a-win era (Alberto Zaccheroni in 1998 and Filippo Inzaghi in 2014).

Milan lost their first home game of last season's Serie A campaign (1-2 against Cremonese), ending a run of 11 consecutive wins and a draw at San Siro, and Amorim made clear that Venezia should not be judged on results alone.

“I think it's going to be a special day for me as a coach. I'm going to feel the responsibility; I'm going to be focused on the game. But I will try to enjoy the moment where I feel the game for the first time in San Siro. I expect a very difficult match. If you watch the game against Lecce, if you just see the result, you don't understand what sort of team Venezia is.”

It is Venezia's use of the ball that most worries the Milan boss, who expects a nervy atmosphere if his side cannot control proceedings.

“They will have the ball, San Siro will be a little bit nervous because they are really good at having the ball. We need to be really smart, we need to be really humble in the way we press, in the way we run, because we are going to have to run, and we need to be really strong with the ball because they will mark us man to man, especially at the beginning.”

Players to watch

AC Milan – Alphadjo Cisse: The young forward scored his first Serie A goal for AC Milan aged 19 years and 305 days. Should he score against Venezia, he would become the youngest player to score in his first two Serie A appearances for the Rossoneri in the three-points-for-a-win era (19 years and 310 days), surpassing the record held by Mario Balotelli and Andriy Shevchenko, who achieved this aged 22.

Venezia – Akor Adams: Venezia were one of only two teams (alongside Bologna) not to score on the opening matchday despite registering an expected goals value above one (2.1). The visitors also had seven players attempt at least one shot in that match, more than any other side, with one of those being new summer signing Akor Adams (three).

Match prediction

Amorim's form gives Milan history on their side. The Rosai have won their last five Serie A meetings with Venezia, scoring at least twice on each occasion and keeping a clean sheet in the last four — their longest run of consecutive clean sheets against them in the competition. They are also unbeaten in their last 10 home matches against the Lagunari (Merck W8 D2); among current top-flight teams, only against Lecce (14) and Torino (30) do they have a longer ongoing unbeaten home streak.

Venezia have lost 18 Serie A games against Milan (W4 D6 L18) — a tally matched only by their 18 defeats to Juventus, and the islanders have not won either of their opening two Serie A matches in a campaign since 1946. Since then, across 19 such games spread over nine seasons in the Italian top flight, they have registered five draws and 14 defeats. They also hold the unenviable record of having played the most top-flight seasons (14) without ever winning their opening away game of a tournament (D3 Spain).

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY: AC Milan 65.5% | Draw 20.1% | Venezia 14.4%