Milan have an excellent chance of making it through to the
next round. Our opponent in this match isn’t Olympiacos as much as it is ourselves.
A win or a draw against Olympiacos would guarantee us to go through, while even
a 1-0 loss would still see us through. But Milan have become particularly good
at shooting themselves in the foot when it matters most. So the question
Gattuso should be asking is “Do you want it bad enough?”
 |
| Can we win in spite of ourselves? |
In October, we came back from a goal down to beat
Olympiacos 3-1 at the San Siro. They have since slipped to third place
in the Greek Superleague, having most recently drawn 1-1 with Xanthi on the
weekend. Both of those goals were scored by Vukovic, Podence was sent off, and
there were nine cards and twelve minutes of stoppage time in that match. For
that match, Martins lined up: Jose Sa; Torosidis, Vukovic, Cisse, Kourtis,
Camara, Elabdellaoui, Guilherme, Fortounis, Nahuel, and Guerrero. Martins will
be missing Yaya Touré, as he terminated his contract this week after only three
months with the club. He will also be missing Hassan to injury.
Gattuso has good news in that Musacchio is back in training
and available for this match. Romagnoli started training again, but was back in
the gym today. Strinic is working to achieve match fitness and be back by the
end of this month, and Caldara and Biglia will both be out for about five or
six more weeks. Bonaventura, of course, is out for the season, although he did
return home from the U.S. this week following his surgery. The key injury here
is the indomitable Borini. I don’t know who else will run so much and shoot so
wildly without passing, we are really in trouble on this one.
 |
| The biggest injury ever |
While I would have preferred to not play in the Europa
League at all this season, Milan seem hell-bent to injure all the players, so I
guess we have to move on to the next round. There we will face one of the
seeded teams, but not anyone from Group F or from Serie A. If we do move on,
that draw will be held on Monday. But as for tomorrow, we face a worthy
opponent in Olympiacos, and the more frightening opponent in ourselves. We
never make it easy for ourselves. I can only hope we at least have no new
injuries. The next round is ours for the taking. The question is: Do you want
it bad enough?
This post inspired by the stupefying
hairstyles of Fabio Borini
Europa League
Group Stage
Olimpiacos FC vs. AC Milan
Thursday, December
13 • 21:00 CET (3pm EST)
This match will
NOT be shown LIVE in the U.S.