Amorim: It is not that Milan want to win, we need to win

Syndicated reporting provided by Stats Perform and reviewed by the SoccerNews editorial team.

Ruben Amorim believes his AC Milan “need to win” against Torino in their opening Serie A game to make a strong start to their project.

The Rossoneri missed out on a top-four finish last season, leading to Massimiliano Allegri’s departure and Amorim’s arrival.

This is the Portuguese coach’s first role since he was sacked as Manchester United head coach in January, with a trip to Turin first up on the schedule.

Amorim could become the first foreign manager to win his opening Serie A match in charge of Milan since Leonardo in August 2009, also away from home against Siena (2-1).

And the Milan boss has urged his side to win all three points against Torino, who are coached by former Rossoneri defender Ignazio Abate.

“I know that Abate is a former player, and had a lot of important games in our club. He knows at AC Milan we need to win every game, but we need to think about what we want to do,” said Amorim.

“It’s not that we want to win, we need to win. It’s important for our project to start well.

“It’s going to be completely different from Manchester United, it is really tough to play against Italian teams, I am just starting out.

“We are going to be ready. I think it’s going to be a fun game to watch. Abate wants to play a certain type of football.”

Tune in as Rúben Amorim previews our season opener 

— AC Milan (@acmilan) August 22, 2026

Torino finished 12th in Serie A last season under Roberto D’Aversa, while a 2-2 draw against Juventus on the final day of the campaign saw their rivals miss out on a top-four spot.

Thanks to his 11 goals for Torino in the 2025-26 Serie A season, Giovanni Simeone became only the third player to reach double figures for goals in a single Serie A season with at least five different teams, after Enrico Chiesa (five) and Alberto Gilardino (six).

Simeone scored 17 goals for Hellas Verona in 2021-22, 14 for Fiorentina in 2017-18, 12 for Cagliari in 2019-20, 12 for Genoa in 2016-17 and 11 for Torino in 2025-26.

Across his three seasons with Paris Saint-Germain (from 2023-24 to 2025-26), Goncalo Ramos (45 goals) has registered the best minutes-per-goal ratio among Ligue 1 players for a single club in all competitions, netting every 120 minutes on average (minimum 50 games).

Milan have won their last two Serie A matches against Torino, as many as they had in their previous seven (D2 L3).

Furthermore, the last six encounters between the two sides in the competition have produced a total of 26 goals (4.3 per match on average), after six of the previous seven meetings saw at least one side fail to score (2.2 goals per match on average).

After going unbeaten for 24 consecutive Serie A matches (W15 D9), Milan have lost seven of their last 13 games (W5 D1) in the competition (54%).

Torino are unbeaten in their last six Serie A home matches (W4 D2), scoring at least two goals in each of those games (14 in total, an average of 2.3 per match) and collecting 14 points.

However, they have won only one of their nine Serie A season openers against the two Milan teams (Inter and Milan), which was their very first such encounter on 17th September 1939, a 2-1 victory against the Rossoneri.

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