On Wednesday, we face bottom of the table SPAL, ahead of our matches with Lazio, Juventus, Napoli, and Parma, all within the space of 11 days. Talk about a perfect storm. That doesn’t make this matchup any easier, though, as Milan barely scraped by SPAL in October with a 1-0 win at the San Siro. Knowing what is around the corner simply means that we need to stay calm tomorrow and focus so we can take all three points. Staying calm before the storm.
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| Will we see the happy couple unite again in attack? |
SPAL are likely as desperate to avoid relegation as a caged wild animal might be trying to escape. Read: unpredictable. While they have lost 20 of their 28 games, that doesn’t mean they will necessarily roll over for Milan in their stadium. Particularly Milan exes like Alberto Paloschi, Andrea Petagna, Mattia Valoti, and Bartosz Salamon (you get bonus points if you remember that 6-month loan deal.) Paloschi and Petagna particularly were both pushed out of Milan and will not mind scoring against their former club.
Former Italy U21 manager Di Biagio’s side are fresh off of a 3-1 thumping at the hands of Gattuso’s Napoli on Sunday. SPAL’s goal was courtesy of Petagna, who now has 12 goals in Serie A this year. For Sunday’s match, Di Biagio lined up Letica; Cionek, Vicari, Felipe, Reca, Strefezza, Missiroli, Murgia, Fares; Cerri, and Petagna. Goalkeeper Berisha as well as Zukanovic and Di Francesco are all out injured, and Felipe will be suspended for this match, so Di Biagio will have to make at least one change to his starting lineup tomorrow.
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| Beware of the Petagna |
Pioli will have Ibrahimovic available, at least on the bench, and hopefully he’ll get some minutes ahead of the upcoming big matches when we will really need him. Whether or not we see him play with Rebic, or how Pioli lines up his attack with Ibrahimovic back remains to be seen. Musacchio and Duarte are still out, but Sunday proved that a one-legged Kjaer is apparently still a better option than Gabbia or trying out someone like Calabria at center back. Wait, let me rephrase that: Kjaer is so good that even with one leg, he got the start.
While Milan are going into this game in what should be a Europa League spot, the race is tight, and we need every point possible. Maintaining concentration against a team with nothing to lose will be the best preparation for the bigger battles on the horizon. SPAL will likely throw everything at us that they can, it will be up to Milan to maintain the calm before the storm.
This post inspired by the music of Muse’s “Time is Running Out”
Serie A Week 29
SPAL vs. Milan
Wednesday, July 1st • 21:45 CEST (3:45pm EDT)
This match can be streamed LIVE on ESPN+ in the U.S.