Despite being undefeated in the league since the notorious defeat to Spezia Serra in January, Milan have yet to win an away match this season. Whereas last year, playing away was a strength, this season, it seems to be their weakness. However, Sampdoria are still managed by the mighty Giampaolo and have yet to win a game this season, so there is hope that Milan could bring back all three points from the Marassi on Saturday. Maybe they will finally break the curse and make this one for the road.
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| Bring one home for us, guys. You got this. |
Sampdoria come into this match with three losses and a draw, their most recent match a 2-1 loss away to Verona last week. For that match, Giampaolo lined up Audero; Berszynskyi, Ferrari Colly, Augello; Rincón, Vieira, Verre; Sabiri; Quagliarella, and Caputo. Giampaolo will be missing a number of players to injury, including Colley, De Luca, Trimboli, and new signing Winks. The evergreen Quagliarella was in doubt this week, but has been called up.
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| "That Pioli keeps following me everywhere I go" |
Pioli has some injuries of his own. Florenzi's injury turned out to be even worse than originally judged. This week, he flew to Finland to have surgery, because he had a tear in one of the muscles of his left hamstring. His recovery time is estimated to be about five months. Additionally, Ibrahimović is obviously still rehabbing from his surgery, and Rebić is still training separately, while Krunić is not quite recovered either.
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| Let's win this one for Spizzi |
Reports were that Origi would get his first start in this match, but he had some muscle fatigue and was left behind as a precaution. Pioli is expected to start Kjaer alongside either Tomori or Kalulu, giving the other one some time to recover. He will likely make a number of rotations in order to allow more players to recover after a tough midweek Champions League draw away to FC Salzburg. Hopefully they can shake off the physical and mental toll of that match and win this one, just one for the road.
This post inspired by the music of Stacey Kent's "One For My Baby (And One More For the Road)"
Our next match is
Serie A Week 6
Sampdoria vs. Milan
Saturday, September 10 • 11:45 CEST (2:45pm EDT)
This match can be streamed LIVE on Paramount+