This first leg of the Coppa Italia Semifinal will be a chance
for teams to react. Both teams faced painful defeats on the weekend, although Juve
had 23 more points than Verona going into their loss, whereas Milan were 19
points behind Inter going into the Derby. So there should definitely be more
shame for Juventus. However, will more shame bring a greater reaction?
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| Which team are the biggest losers? |
Juventus were defeated 2-1 on Saturday by ex-Milan players
Borini and Pazzini, cancelling out a Cristiano Ronaldo goal. Actually, Pazzini’s
goal was a penalty, conceded by another ex-Milan player, Bonucci. For that
match, Sarri lined up Szczesny; Cuadrado, de Ligt, Bonucci, Sandro; Bentancur,
Pjanic, Rabiot; Costa, Higuain, and Ronaldo. Sarri is still missing Demiral,
who is out for the season. Costa was injured Saturday and will miss, as will
Bernardeschi and Khedira. Chiellini is still not ready to return after his long
injury.
Pioli faces the daunting task of finding morale after a
crushing Derby loss on Sunday. Even if Inter were favored on paper, our first half
was amazing, and our second half was the opposite of amazing. Even with
Ibrahimovic, he will be lucky to find the courage to play for a miracle in this
match.
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| Current mood? |
Pioli will be missing Duarte and Krunic to injury. While
Conti will be suspended in the league match this coming Monday, he will be
available for this Coppa Italia match. The other question that we must always
ask is whether or not Pioli will give a chance to Begovic or Antonio
Donnarumma, as is tradition in the Coppa Italia. He did not risk either of them
in our victory against Torino, so Gigio could be called upon once again.
Juventus’ wage bill is more than two and a half times Milan’s
wage bill. Meaning Milan are not really meant to win this at all. Our only hope
is that playing at home, in front of 70,000 fans creates some kind of miracle
to give us an advantage before we head to Turin for the second leg on March
fourth. The result of this match will be largely determined by which team finds
the most capability to react.
This post inspired by the music of Depeche
Mode’s “World Full of Nothing”
Coppa Italia
Semifinal, First Leg
Milan vs. Juventus
Thursday, February
13 • 20:45 CET (2:45pm EST)
This match can be
streamed LIVE on ESPN+