After a couple of poor results in the league, Milan answered with back to back wins in Serie A and qualifying for the Quarterfinals of the Europa League with back to back wins vs. Slavia Praha. Yet once again, they are called upon to play another match less than 72 hours after their match in Prague. Traveling to Verona is never easy, so Milan will need to stay focused if we want to win against Verona again. With one foot into the international break, they need to maintain an unshakable mentality and prove that they are an unyielding force.
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| Pioli's infamous mentality is needed now more than ever. |
Verona are in 14th place in Serie A, entrenched in a relegation dogfight where five teams are all within three points of each other. Their most recent match was a 1-0 win over Lecce last week. For that match, Baroni lined up: Montipò; Tchatchoua, Magnani, Coppola, Cabal; Duda, Serdar; Suslov, Folorunsho, Lazović; and Noslin. Juan Manuel Cruz is in doubt for this match, as he is recovering from an injury.
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| Baroni striving to keep Verona up amidst a relegation dogfight. |
However, Baroni will be without Thomas Henry, who was shown a red card after the final whistle last week, in a controversial incident which saw the opposition manager head butt him and subsquently receive a four match ban and lose his job. And we thought Pulisic was impressive for getting people sent off.
Pioli doesn't have anyone suspended, but he will still be missing Pobega to injury. Also injured is Alex Jiménez, who is out with a muscle injury. He will have Florenzi back from suspension, however, and concerns about an injury to Maignan sustained on Thursday have been cleared, as it seems he will be available to start. His starting defenders are slowly but surely getting their form back, too.
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| Florenzi will be back from his one match suspension. |
Pioli's big challenge will be squad rotation, which he frequently struggles with, especially after these European matches. However, last week, against Empoli at the San Siro, Milan were in control with a reasonably rotated squad. So now, the challenge this week will be do the same against an arguably better side, playing away at the Bentegodi, one of the more hostile stadiums in Serie A. If Milan continue to match their mentality and performances of late, though, they should prove to be an unyielding force.
Reviewed by Elaine
on
11:17 PM
Rating:
