Europa League • Olympiacos FC vs AC Milan Preview: Do You Want It Bad Enough?

Milan have an excellent chance of making it through to the next round. Our opponent in this match isn’t Olympiacos as much as it is ourselves. A win or a draw against Olympiacos would guarantee us to go through, while even a 1-0 loss would still see us through. But Milan have become particularly good at shooting themselves in the foot when it matters most. So the question Gattuso should be asking is “Do you want it bad enough?”

Can we win in spite of ourselves?

In October, we came back from a goal down to beat Olympiacos 3-1 at the San Siro. They have since slipped to third place in the Greek Superleague, having most recently drawn 1-1 with Xanthi on the weekend. Both of those goals were scored by Vukovic, Podence was sent off, and there were nine cards and twelve minutes of stoppage time in that match. For that match, Martins lined up: Jose Sa; Torosidis, Vukovic, Cisse, Kourtis, Camara, Elabdellaoui, Guilherme, Fortounis, Nahuel, and Guerrero. Martins will be missing Yaya Touré, as he terminated his contract this week after only three months with the club. He will also be missing Hassan to injury.

Gattuso has good news in that Musacchio is back in training and available for this match. Romagnoli started training again, but was back in the gym today. Strinic is working to achieve match fitness and be back by the end of this month, and Caldara and Biglia will both be out for about five or six more weeks. Bonaventura, of course, is out for the season, although he did return home from the U.S. this week following his surgery. The key injury here is the indomitable Borini. I don’t know who else will run so much and shoot so wildly without passing, we are really in trouble on this one.

The biggest injury ever

While I would have preferred to not play in the Europa League at all this season, Milan seem hell-bent to injure all the players, so I guess we have to move on to the next round. There we will face one of the seeded teams, but not anyone from Group F or from Serie A. If we do move on, that draw will be held on Monday. But as for tomorrow, we face a worthy opponent in Olympiacos, and the more frightening opponent in ourselves. We never make it easy for ourselves. I can only hope we at least have no new injuries. The next round is ours for the taking. The question is: Do you want it bad enough?

This post inspired by the stupefying hairstyles of Fabio Borini

Europa League Group Stage

Olimpiacos FC vs. AC Milan

Thursday, December 13 • 21:00 CET (3pm EST)

This match will NOT be shown LIVE in the U.S.