Milan's 2023 started out fine. Then we faced Roma at the San Siro. The last few minutes of that match saw us drop points, and our mentality and results have struggled ever since. Additionally, Milan and Roma go into this match tied on points, so a win would be important to secure a top four finish and qualify for Champions League next season. While a couple of freak injuries are creeping back into Milan's bench, it is now Roma who are in real injury trouble. Also, unlike our last meeting, Mourinho is available for this match. So with a little luck and some laser-focus from everyone in the team, as well a hopefully an even better performance than the 2-0 win over Lecce last week, this match could just see us break the curse and finish the season on a high note.
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| Tomori is pumped to see his good friend Tammy Abraham again |
Roma have been in decent form of late, with recent league matches ending L-W-W-W-L. After coming back from the first leg to knock Feyenoord out of the Europa League Quarterfinal last week, however, they lost 3-1 away to Atalanta. For that match, Mourinho lined up Rui Patricio; Mancini, Llorente, Ibañez; Celik, Bove, Cristante, Zalewski; Pellegrini, Solbakken; and Abraham. In that match, Llorente suffered a muscle injury, and will miss this match. Dybala was also injured, and is fighting to be available for this match, but his fitness is unknown as of this writing. Mourinho is also missing Chris Smalling and Rick Karsdorp to injury.
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| RSVP: One yes, one maybe as of this writing |
Pioli had eight players missing to injury when we faced Roma in January. Now he has only two. Ibrahimović, who was just returning from injury again, sustained a serious calf injury while warming up on Sunday. Pobega suffered a freak training accident last Saturday in which a collision during a training match led to a compound rib fracture, so his season is over. A shame, because he had scored his first Serie A goal against Roma in January. Giroud returned to full training with the team on Thursday, so is expected to be available on Saturday. Calabria will also be returning from his one-match suspension.
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| Maybe he is just what we need to break the curse |
That leaves the almost an entire squad healthy for Pioli to choose from. Having given the guys a little time off with no midweek matches this week, he should select his best eleven to start. That would still likely start Florenzi on the bench. This is his first trip back to Rome since signing for Milan, as he was injured when we faced them last season at the Olimpico. But maybe his inexplicably die-hard Roma-born-and-bred blood is just what Milan need to free ourselves from this horrible spell we have been under since the last five minutes of Milan-Roma in January. Maybe all of these bizarre coincidences are just what we need to break the curse.
This post inspired by the music of INXS's "Devil Inside"
Reviewed by Elaine
on
1:15 AM
Rating:
