Bologna-Milan Preview: Heartstrings

This matchup has been viewed with emotion since beloved former Milan coach Sinisa Mihajlovic was diagnosed with Leukemia this year. As head coach of Bologna now, he has recently returned to the bench again, making this encounter at the Dall’Aria enough to pull at your heartstrings.

Some battles are bigger than football

Bologna got destroyed 4-0 by Udinese on Wednesday in the Coppa Italia. How much that will impact their legs or their mentality remains to be seen. On Sunday, they were flying high, as they beat Napoli 2-1 at the San Paolo, with two second half goals to answer Napoli’s first half goal. For that epic matchup, Mihajlovic lined up: Skorupski; Tomiyasu, Bani, Danilo, Denswil; Medel; Orsolini, former Milan headless chicken Poli, Dzemaili, Sansone; and Palacio. Medel will be suspended, the less ex-Inter in the squad is always better. Additionally, Mihajlovic will be missing Dijks, Soriano, Santander, and possibly Krejci to injury. It must suck to be them, because when you tell the coach you’re injured, he could say “Injured? I’ve got Leukemia, and I’m still here.” Which, ironically, I could see Mihajlovic joking with them about.

Still so much love for our former General

Milan are rested, not joining the Coppa Italia until we host SPAL in January. We are coming off of an important victory over Parma on Sunday, which was a victory more for the mentality than anything else. Pioli will be missing Duarte to long term injury, and Caldara is still not deemed fit to play, despite playing with the Primavera last week. There are reports that Romagnoli was involved in a car accident on Monday, however, he is called up for tomorrow. Paqueta is back from injury, as are the bench players who were out, so Pioli has almost a complete squad to draw from.

The emotions will likely be high, as Mihajlovic brought Romagnoli to Milan and trusted him to start despite being so young. He also gave Gigio Donnarumma his first team start, and Gigio has always mentioned how grateful he is to him. Mihajlovic often took the team out for dinner on his own dime, and many players described their relationship with him as more of a father-son relationship. He was also unfairly sacked with only six games left in the season because Berlusconi’s ego got in the way of any common sense he might have had. So the reunions will likely be tearful, even more so with Mihajlovic fighting his health battle.

We love you, dad, but we have to take all three points, sorry

It might be painful for Milan to take three points from Bologna given the circumstances, and it certainly will be difficult. They are only one point behind us on the table and need some redemption themselves. With the speculation of that battle for Ibra’s signature involving both teams, too, this one will be a passionate one. However, at the end of the day, Milan need to fight for the win, and Mihajlovic would want us to.

This post inspired by the music of Queen’s “Love of My Life”

Serie A Week 15

Bologna vs. Milan

Sunday, December 8 • 20:45 CET (2:45pm EDT)

This match can be seen LIVE on TV on ESPN Deportes or RAI Italia in the U.S.

Can also be streamed LIVE on ESPN+ in the U.S.