Milan-Sassuolo Preview: Advantage

Coming in to this match, Milan are just two points behind third place. With Inter losing to Cagliari on Friday, a win could put is in that third place spot. Above Inter. Where every Milan fan wants to be. However, there is a strange, almost magical force standing between us and gloating to our cugini: Sassuolo. While Milan have a slight head to head advantage, it seems like Sassuolo trouble us more than other teams with similar budgets do. Still, Milan just have to win this one. Not only for morale, but for advantage.

Can Milan hold their mentality and take the advantage?

Sassuolo haven’t won any of their last four games, having tied two and lost two. De Zerbi would love nothing more than to get his team back to winning ways, even if his boss, Squinzi is a self-proclaimed  Milanista. Their most recent match was a 1-1 draw with SPAL. For that match last weekend, he lined up Consigli; Demiral, Peluso, Ferrari; Adjapong, Sensi, Magnanelli, Rogerio; Boga, Matri, and Djuricic. Matri actually does have two goals this season, which is double what he scored at Milan, so he is one to watch out for.

Gattuso has a new injury worry in Kessie, who took a knock on Tuesday. He did train with the team on Friday, however his fitness will be left up to the last minute. Caldara is playing with the Primavera today as his last step to regain fitness, so he won’t be available for this match. Also not quite available for this match is Zapata, although Gattuso said he would be back soon.

"It's not about you, Alessandro, it's FFP, sorry, we can't afford you"

Milan took a step backward on Tuesday in their Coppa Italia match. Not just because of the scoreless draw, but because of how they played. So this match will either go much better or we will choke, it’s unlikely to go the same. If it goes much better, it’s because Gattuso probably literally let a fire underneath the players. If they choke, it will probably be because we have the opportunity to take third place, and that is what we typically do. However, when we played them in September, it was a goalfest. This Milan has evolved so much recently that perhaps they will just surprise us. Maybe we’ll take all three points and give ourselves the advantage.

This post inspired by the music of Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”

Serie A Week 26

Milan vs. Sassuolo

Saturday, March 2 • 18:00 CET (12noon EST)

This match will be shown LIVE on ESPN+ in the U.S.