Another Champions League match is upon us in the new League Phase, and Milan lost their first two matches vs. Liverpool at San Siro and Bayer Leverkusen away, then managed to win vs. both a ten man Club Brugge and Real Madrid at the Bernabéu. That sees Milan currently in 20th place on the table, currently within the unseeded spots for the knockout round. Which brings us to Tuesday's matchup in Slovakia with ŠK Slovan Bratislava, with perhaps no one more excited than their own Juraj Kucka, whose reaction to our draw went viral. The hosts are still looking for their first Champions League points, sitting dead last on the table. After watching Milan's performance vs. Juventus on Saturday, they must truly be keeping the dream alive.
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| The team want to keep Milan's Champions League dream alive. |
Slovan Bratislava's last foray in the Champions League was a 4-1 loss to GNK Dinamo at home. They have also survived losses to Girona, Manchester City, an Celtic, scoring only two goals and conceding 15. However, they lead the Slovak Super Liga coming into this match. Their most recent match was a 1-1 draw with FC Košice on Friday. For that match, manager Vladimir Weiss lined up a 4-1-4-1 with: Takáč; Medveděv, Bajrić, Wimmer,Vojtko; Ignatenko; Barseghyan, Szöke, Gajdoš, Mak; and Metsoko. He should have his entire Champions League squad available, as he recently recovered former Milan fan favorite Juraj Kucka from injury, who played on Friday and spoke in the press conference ahead of this match. Although he is now 37 and it has been some years, I hope that he will be remembered and greeted well by Milan fans on Tuesday.
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| Kucka looked back fondly at his time at Milan and is excited to face his former club. |
For this one, Morata is suspended due to card accumulation, so Tammy Abraham will likely start.. Of those in his Champions League squad, Fonseca will also be missing Bennacer and Florenzi, both still recovering from their long term injuries. He will also be without Emerson Royal, who suffered a minor ankle injury on Saturday and is out for this one. Fonseca said that Calabria will definitely play this one, giving him a chance to prove himself as if he was handing an ungrateful child the gift of a lifetime. That is our loyal, hardworking captain, who he has repeatedly benched for months, even when he was fit. But the media has overlooked talking about him in their search for clicks and continued mission to villify Leão.
Fonseca continues to produce inconsistent results and incoherent press conferences.
All parties agree that Milan, with a squad valued at nearly €500 million, should easily get past Slovan Bratislava, a team valued at around €30 million. However, Milan have given the Slovakian side more than enough reasons to dream this season with so many poor results and performances. Meanwhile, Fonseca has his head in the clouds and insists that the Scudetto is still within our reach after his team played one of the worst matches of the season. There is dreaming, and then there is complete fantasy, and that definitely falls in the latter. But he needs all three points in this one for a realistic hope at keeping his job, and Milan need all three points to maintain hope of making it to the knockout round. So here's to keeping the dream alive.
This post inspired by the music of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"
UEFA Champions League • League Phase
Reviewed by Elaine
on
12:30 AM
Rating:
