Hellas Verona-Milan Preview: Wherefore Art Thou?

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was set in Verona, and we all know how that ended. Milan really struggle at the Bentegodi. In fact, we lost two of our last three matches there, which is no love story, I’m not gonna lie. Milan have a decent squad, and Verona didn’t do as much as perhaps they should have as a newly promoted team. But they come into this match ahead of us after two games. The biggest questions center around Giampaolo. The hearts of Milan fans everywhere are asking, “O Giampaolo, Giampaolo, wherefore art thou Giampaolo?”

"Dear Maldini, Thanks for the new players, but I prefer the old ones"

Giampaolo answered that question but raised many more in a press conference today ahead of the team’s departure for Verona. After being heavily criticized for not playing his new players like every other coach, he said “There are no old or new players, there is only Milan.” After being gifted one of the most exciting and prolific young strikers in Serie in Piatek, he said that Piatek should be “a complete player, not just a pirate in the final third.” It seems that even Giampaolo decided the ridiculous amounts of praise heaped on him before he even started was just too much, so he has set out to alienate every single Milan fan in the world. And he’s doing well, too. It would be one thing if we were playing convincing football, but since we’re not, his words are like salt in the wounds.

Verona drew their first match, despite being on ten men for much of it, then won vs. Lecce before the break. Also not playing convincing football, but they’ve started off better than Milan in the results. For the Lecce match, Juric lined up Silvestri; Rrahmani, Kumbulla, Günter; Faraoni, Amrabat, Veloso, Lazovic; Henderson; Tutino, and Zaccagni. He will have the young Dawidowicz back from suspension for this match. However he will be missing Bocchetti, Crescenzi, and Bessa to injury. Also missing indefinitely is Emmanuel Badu, who was hospitalized just before the season due to a small blood clot in his lung.

To us, he was Pazzini, but to Verona, he is Captain Pazzini

Giampaolo will be missing Reina and Caldara for fitness reasons, but will otherwise have plenty of players to choose from, old and new. Wait, just Milan. Rebic has been included, although he has only trained twice with the team since joining the club from Eintracht Frankfurt. Although he fits Giampaolo’s “only Milan” definition, don’t hold your breath for him to start, because he has only been “only Milan” for two training sessions. Meaning new.

Milan always have a tough time at the Bentegodi. I’m not sure if that makes them a Montague or a Capulet, but then again everyone lost in that play. Giampaolo is only going into his third competitive match with Milan, and he has already lost the plot. Let’s hope that there is some miracle and that Milan can pull off a win in spite of him. Or at least that it ends better than it did for Romeo and Juliet.

This post inspired by Josh Groban’s “Un Giorno Per Noi (Romeo e Giulietta.)”

Serie A Week 3

Hellas Verona vs. Milan

Sunday, September 15 • 20:45 CEST (2:45pm EDT)

This match can be streamed on ESPN+ in the U.S.