Thursday night, Milan will be hosting Genoa at the San Siro for the final match of Round 19. Thanks to some help from the referees Napoli (whomever you believe,) Milan will maintain their second place spot on the table, but a win will keep us within one point of first place. However, Genoa sit in the precarious 17th place, also known as the Allegri Danger Zone™. As a team in the lower half of the table, especially so close to the relegation zone, they pose a very real threat for Milan to drop points. Even Allegri spoke in his press conference of Genoa's performances since De Rossi was hired as their manager. Despite this being a formality on paper, that makes this match a potential hazard.
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| If you've seen De Rossi's tattoo, you'll know we have been warned. |
After Patrick Viera's Genoa failed to win a single Serie A match by November, he was sacked and Roma and Italy legend Daniele De Rossi was hired on November 6th last year. Since then, Genoa have won 3, drawn 3, and lost three in the league, with the losses coming to Atalanta, Inter, and Roma respectively. Allegri said they had scored in each of their last ten matches, which actually is not true, there were two they failed to score in since De Rossi took over, clearly they are much improved under the new manager.
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| Is Lorenzo Colombo more likely to score than the forwards wearing our kits? |
Their most recent match was a 1-1 draw with Pisa on Saturday, in which the Milan-owned Lorenzo Colombo scored the goal for Genoa. For that match, De Rossi lined up a 3-5-2 with: Leali; Otoa, Østigård, Johan Vásquez; Norton-Cuffy, Malinovskyi, Frendrup, Thorsby, Aarón Martín; the aforementioned Colombo, and Vitinha. De Rossi will be without Milan's former Cinderella story Messias, Siegrist, and Cornet due to injury, and with Gornbaek's fitness doubtful for this match.
Allegri is technically only missing Santi Gimenez and Nkunku to injury. But we all know that he is playing injury roulette with all of our other attackers, including Leão and Pulisic, neither of whom are 100%, yet both are reported to start up front. At least he now has Füllkrug, who should be growing into fitness and getting more familiar with his new teammates and country and language and... who am I kidding? The guy has been in Italy for two weeks. But he's a warm body who is not currently carrying any injuries. Loftus-Cheek trained separately on Tuesday, but will be available on Thursday. And Pavlović and Gabbia are reported to be returning to the starting lineup on Thursday after their respective issues.
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| Having our starting center backs returning to the starting lineup should bring confidence. |
With most of the players back in action, Allegri should feel confident in this match. However, not only is Genoa a potential peril for dropping points due to being a lower table side, he will have to manage his players' health because we go again less than 72 hours later away to Fiorentina. So, once again, he will need to be a master at both substitutions and reading the match. One false move on his part, or an error from any of the players at any moment, and Genoa could capitalize on it. That is why playing this match could truly be a hazard.
Milan Primavera Crash Out of the Coppa Italia with a 1-0 Loss to Parma
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| Primavera's captain Scotti shows the disappointment of being knocked out. |
Renna's Primavera beat his predecessor on Sunday, but they were knocked out of the Coppa Italia on Wednesday with 1-0 defeat from Parma Primavera. They conceded a goal in the 24th minute, and despite their best efforts, they were unable to find an equalizer. Lontani did hit the post in the second half, but that was at close as Milan came to getting back into the game. They have no time to wallow, though, as they are back in action on Saturday away to Torino.