Sampdoria have a fifty percent win record under Marco Giampaolo this time around, which is better than his record was at Milan. Of course, he has only coached two games in his second term with the Genovese side, but hey, who is counting? Milan are flying even higher with huge wins this week against Inter in the Derby and Lazio in the Coppa Italia, as we discussed on this week's podcast. But this is the lunchtime game, and anything can happen in 90 minutes. Certainly, no one would love to take down Milan more than Giampaolo.
 |
| Milan are flying high and have complete Giampaolo amnesia |
Sampdoria sit barely above the relegation zone in 16th place. Having sacked D'Aversa after crashing out of the Coppa Italia to Juventus, they went back to Giampaolo, who had a great three year stint at the helm of the Blucerchiati through 2019. He lost his first match back 1-0 to Spezia, but then trounced Sassuolo 4-0 last week at the Marassi.
For that match, he lined up Falconi; Bereszynski, Ferrari, Colley, Murru; Candreva, Rincón, Thorsby; Sensi; Gabbiadini, and Caputo. One of his goalscorers in that match was former Milan injury benchwarmer Andrea Conti. Giampaolo will be missing Damsgaard, Askildsen, Yoshida, and Gabbiadini, who sustained a season-ending ACL injury in that match. That injury saw the signing of the pint-sized Giovinco this week, who was signed as a free agent and could make his tiny triumphant return to Serie A at lunchtime on Sunday.
 |
| He looks more like Sampdoria's sailor mascot every day |
Pioli is the manager who replaced Giampaolo and made us all forget that dark three months. He will notably be missing Theo Hernández to suspension due to a red card last weekend. While that did not prevent him from signing a contract extension through 2026 on Friday, it will prevent him from featuring against Sampdoria. Also missing will be our injured Vikings Kjaer and Ibrahimović, as well as the AFCON champion Ballo-Touré. Pioli will have some tired players after midweek action, but hopefully the home fans will counteract that disadvantage.
Milan await the outcome of Saturday's top of the table matchup between Napoli and Inter to find out if a win versus Sampdoria could help us jump to first or second place again. With the momentum of this week's matches, it could propel the team to victory or it could cause us to slip up. Certainly, there is someone who would prefer the latter. He was shown the door at Milan after only seven league matches with confusing tactics and terrible performances. But he would love nothing more than to make this lunchtime match Giampaolo's revenge.
This post inspired by the music of "She Wants Revenge"
Reviewed by Elaine
on
12:30 AM
Rating:
