After an unfulfilling trip to Germany in the Champions League midweek, Milan are on the road once again to face Genoa. This is apparently an "anomaly" in the Serie A calendar, we are the only team to play two away matches in three days. Lucky us. After winning promotion back to Serie A this season, former Milan and Genoa striker Gilardino has Il Grifone in 14th place coming into this match, but has produced some excellent results against big teams. Milan need to go into the international break on a win for mentality ahead of difficult fixtures, whereas a result against Milan could confirm Genoa's status as Serie A's giant killer this season. Genoa have no fear and just by virtue of playing in Serie A are living the dream.
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| Will these two get the start up front on Saturday? |
Gilardino's Genoa currently have two wins, two draws, and three losses, but those two wins were against Lazio and Roma and they also managed a draw with Napoli. Their most recent match was a 2-2 draw with Udinese on Sunday. For that match, Gilardino lined up: Martínez; Dragusin, Bani, Vásquez; De Winter, Thorsby, Frendrup, Malinovskyi, Haps; Retegui, and Gudmundsson.
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| Messias' Milan dream was cut short, now he can become our nightmare. |
Gilardino does have some important players out injured, however. He will be missing Badelj, Strootman, and Ekuban to injury, and is likely to miss Retegui as well, who did not train with the team on Thursday due to a knee injury. That means that Milan-owned Messias will likely start against the team of his dreams. Messias scored on his debut for Genoa, as a sub, and this would actually be his first start for his new club. I am sure he will be eager to show Milan what we are missing, too.
Pioli is still missing Bennacer, Caldara, Kalulu, Krunić, and Loftus-Cheek to injuries. There is hope that the latter three could possibly return after the break, but none of them will be available on Saturday. With the midweek match taking a lot out of the players, Pioli is likely to rotate some players to attempt to avoid more injuries.
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| Adli should get the start, especially with Loftus-Cheek still missing. |
In the midfield, I would assume he gives Adli the start after overlooking him against Dortmund. There is a lot of speculation as to who else gets rest, such as Okafor starting in place of Giroud, but much will likely be determined by how the players have recovered after Wednesday's trip. Another situation to be managed is Theo Hernández being at risk for suspension due to card accumulation. It is difficult to imagine starting or playing a match without him, but better against Genoa by resting him than through suspension for Juventus or Napoli, our next fixtures after the break.
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| Pioli needs to sort out his starting 11 that allows rotation without risk. |
Three points against Genoa would be the ideal way to send the players off to the break, and is likely the expectation for Milan, not just the dream. But Genoa have dreams of their own, and even a draw against Milan would likely be seen as a positive for them. Every point counts for both teams, even if they are for different reasons. This may not seem like an important match, but whether you are competing for a top spot or avoiding relegation, every match is important. At the end of 90 minutes, one team will be disappointed, one team will still be living the dream.
This post inspired by the music of The Cranberries' "Dreams"