Last
time we met Bologna was at the beginning of September. After having lost our
first match, Pazzini secured a
3-1 win with a hat trick. Would it be too much to ask for a repeat
performance? I am not actually that demanding, I would be thrilled with a win,
regardless of who scores. With all of the teams ahead of us starting to slip up
and show their weaknesses, we need to take advantage of every match and hope
that our fortunes will increase and take advantage of our opponents’
misfortunes if we have any hope of achieving fourth place. Oh, wait, third
place. Right. Anyway, perhaps Pazzini has another flavorful performance in him
and can make a sauce out of this Bologna side.
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| Pazzini Bolognese is a tasty dish that includes snake eyes |
Bologna
will likely be a little shell-shocked (and more probably really tired) from
their midweek Coppa Italia match at the San Siro where they lost, 3-2 in extra
time to our cugini. It was a long, tough
match, and most of their starters played the 120 minutes. They have had a long,
tough season, with many disappointments, which is why they now sit in the 14th
spot on the table with 21 points. However, they, like us, seem to be fighting
to improve, and most notably took a win away from Napoli, 3-2, at the San Paolo
just a month ago, so do not count them out. They are also coming off of a 4-0
win over Chievo last weekend, and would do well to take advantage of our
weaknesses.
On
Wednesday vs. Inter, Stefano Pioli lined up probably his strongest lineup in
Agliardi; Portanova, Antonsson, Motta, Morleo; Sorenson, Perez, Guarente,
Diamante; Gilardino, and Pasquate. And yes, that is our Gilardino. He had been kept mostly quiet this season with 6
goals, then scored a brace against Chievo last weekend for a total of eight
goals on the season. But the one that always scares me is Diamanti. His stats
don’t look much, with five goals and three assists, but he seems to be at the
center of everything good that happens for Bologna. He also got a taste for the
San Siro nets on Wednesday with a goal, so let’s hope our boys can shut him
down.
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| Let's not make this a nice homecoming for Gilardino |
On
the flip side, Allegri has had a busy and possibly distracting week with all of
the mercato happenings. And he’s still got defensive injury woes with Yepes and
Bonera still out injured. Then Ambrosini is now out for at least a month with a
thigh lesion, and of course no De Jong, so he’ll likely start Mexes and Zapata
in the back with today’s birthday boy, Montolivo in front of defense. I would
expect Abbiati to start after his performance last weekend, but who knows? And
ideally, De Sciglio an Constant would be the full backs, but again, with
Allegri, anything is possible.
The
midfield is a mystery to me. I would like to believe that Boateng wouldn’t get
the start, but then what message would that send to the racists… I mean,
Allegri would never dream of benching his favorite player. I’d like to see
Nocerino, personally, as his season seems to be just taking off, but that’s me.
I honestly have no idea what Allegri will do.
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| Let's hope the birthday boy has a great match to celebrate |
Up
front, it’s nearly as mysterious, although I think he may play Pazzini. After
his lackluster Coppa performance last week, he got a break via suspension on
the weekend, so at least he’ll be well rested. And who knows, maybe he’ll be
hungry for some more Bolognese sauce? It’s a shame he keeps wanting to put
Bojan in as a center forward like he did vs. Sampdoria, because he plays much
better elsewhere, but he’s less likely to get a start under Allegri. I would guess
it would be more likely that El Shaarawy and Robinho complete the front line,
even if Bojan, Niang, and Urby might all be better candidates to fill the other
two spots.
Hopefully,
urgency lines up with our starting 11, whoever they may be. It didn’t last week
against Sampdoria, and we paid for it by dropping two points. But now we are at
home. And even if we’ve lost four of our ten home games in the league, we can
make that right again this second half of the season by taking back our house.
It won’t be easy, but if our boys can find the same sense of urgency they
played with against Juventus, then we can make a tasty meal of Bologna and keep
all three points for ourselves. We’ll need to be hungry, but we’ll need to stay
focused for 90 minutes. If we can do that and capitalize on their fatigue,
maybe we’ll grab a tasty victory after all. And if we’re really lucky, maybe
someone will serve up some more Pazzini
Bolognese.
This post inspired by the music of Madness
Milan vs. Bologna
Sunday, January 20 • 15:00 CET (9am EST)
This match will be broadcast LIVE on BeIn Sport and RAI in the U.S.
(check the comments here prior to the match for stream links)