This matchup has been viewed with emotion since beloved
former Milan coach Sinisa Mihajlovic was diagnosed with Leukemia this year. As
head coach of Bologna now, he has recently returned to the bench again, making
this encounter at the Dall’Aria enough to pull at your heartstrings.
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| Some battles are bigger than football |
Bologna got destroyed 4-0 by Udinese on Wednesday in the
Coppa Italia. How much that will impact their legs or their mentality remains to
be seen. On Sunday, they were flying high, as they beat Napoli 2-1 at the San
Paolo, with two second half goals to answer Napoli’s first half goal. For that
epic matchup, Mihajlovic lined up: Skorupski; Tomiyasu, Bani, Danilo, Denswil;
Medel; Orsolini, former Milan headless chicken Poli, Dzemaili, Sansone; and
Palacio. Medel will be suspended, the less ex-Inter in the squad is always
better. Additionally, Mihajlovic will be missing Dijks, Soriano, Santander, and
possibly Krejci to injury. It must suck to be them, because when you tell the
coach you’re injured, he could say “Injured? I’ve got Leukemia, and I’m still
here.” Which, ironically, I could see Mihajlovic joking with them about.
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| Still so much love for our former General |
Milan are rested, not joining the Coppa Italia until we host
SPAL in January. We are coming off of an important victory over Parma on Sunday,
which was a victory more for the mentality than anything else. Pioli will be
missing Duarte to long term injury, and Caldara is still not deemed fit to
play, despite playing with the Primavera last week. There are reports that
Romagnoli was involved in a car accident on Monday, however, he is called up
for tomorrow. Paqueta is back from injury, as are the bench players who were out, so Pioli has almost a complete squad to draw from.
The emotions will likely be high, as Mihajlovic brought
Romagnoli to Milan and trusted him to start despite being so young. He also
gave Gigio Donnarumma his first team start, and Gigio has always mentioned how
grateful he is to him. Mihajlovic often took the team out for dinner on his own
dime, and many players described their relationship with him as more of a
father-son relationship. He was also unfairly sacked with only six games left in
the season because Berlusconi’s ego got in the way of any common sense he might
have had. So the reunions will likely be tearful, even more so with Mihajlovic
fighting his health battle.
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| We love you, dad, but we have to take all three points, sorry |
It might be painful for Milan to take three points from
Bologna given the circumstances, and it certainly will be difficult. They are
only one point behind us on the table and need some redemption themselves. With
the speculation of that battle for Ibra’s signature involving both teams, too,
this one will be a passionate one. However, at the end of the day, Milan need
to fight for the win, and Mihajlovic would want us to.
This post inspired by the music of
Queen’s “Love of My Life”
Serie A Week 15
Bologna vs. Milan
Sunday, December 8
• 20:45 CET (2:45pm EDT)
This match can be
seen LIVE on TV on ESPN Deportes or RAI Italia in the U.S.
Can also be
streamed LIVE on ESPN+ in the U.S.