Milan-Chievo Preview: Straight As The Donkey Flies

I never get tired of marveling over Chievo’s mascot or nickname, “i Mussi Volanti,” or “the Flying Donkeys.” For one, are flying donkeys actually a thing? And if so, are flying mules as stubborn as non-flying ones? And what happens when a flying donkey defecates – if the land-bound ones produce road apples, do the flying ones produce sky apples? I ask these questions because it seems perfect that our midweek nemesis is such a farcical creature, considering our farcical level of play. And with them having only one point less than us, we will need to go straight as the donkey flies if we are to ogre-out another win this round.

Mihajlovic tries to show the team how big those sky apples can be

Maran sees his Flying Donkeys in 11th place, with three wins, three draws, and three losses so far. Most recently, on Sunday, was a 1-0 loss to Napoli at the Bentegodi. For that match, Maran lined up Bizarri; Gamberini, Cesar, Gobbi, Cacciatore; Rigoni, Pinzi, Pepe, Castro, Paloschi; and Meggiorini. As of this writing, it looks like Izco is expected to miss this one due to injury.

Two of Chievo’s best players so far this season are Paloschi and Birsa, and if those names sound familiar, it’s because they are both ex-Milan. Birsa is often coined “the Slovenian Messi,” while Paloschi was chosen by the man himself to be Inzaghi’s heir. Paloschi has  four goals and an assist so far this year, while Birsa has two goals and three assists this season.

Ex-Milan and flying high, they will definitely want to make the San Siro remember them

Meanwhile, Mihajlovic has one player coming back from injury: Niang. He took part in Monday’s training with the team for the whole time and even scored a goal in the practice match at the end. I can’t imagine him starting, and he may not see any time at all in this match, but at least he is getting healthy. However, Balotelli is still out with his groin injury, and Menez is still recovering from his back surgery.

We played so ugly on Sunday, but the three points has to help the beleaguered mentality of the players. But now we are playing a team just below us on the table, who have fought hard for their points and are perhaps better than where people expected them to be. Will the victory be enough to power Milan to take advantage of playing at home and grab another three points? Given our spotty record, I wouldn’t bet the farm on it. But maybe if we can just play it straight as the donkey flies, then with a little luck we can get a result.

This post inspired by heavenly Paluani Pandoro

Milan vs. Chievo

Wednesday, October 28 • 20:45 CET (3:45pm EDT)*

*Note the time difference due to European Daylight Savings Time change

This match will NOT be shown LIVE in the US

Callups:

Goalkeepers: Abbiati, Donnarumma, Diego Lopez

Defenders: Abate, Alex, Antonelli, Calabria, De Sciglio, Rodrigo Ely, Mexes, Romagnoli, Zapata

Midfielders: Bertolacci, Bonaventura, De Jong, Josè Mauri, Kucka, Montolivo, Poli, Suso

Attackers: Bacca, Cerci, Honda, Luiz Adriano