A victory to take the Champions area. The match between Milan and Genoa will be played this evening (at 20.30 pm), originally scheduled for August 19 and postponed due to the tragedy of the Morandi bridge. Many things have changed since that summer Sunday and not only for the arrival of autumn: today the ranking is starting to take shape and therefore the challenge takes on a much different importance.
On the one hand a Genoa that has changed coach (via Ballardini, inside Juric), on the other a Milan that instead has kept the same, albeit for the skin of the cup. The victory over Sampdoria has given Gattuso back some oxygen, to consider him truly out of danger, however, another one is needed: also because, in that case, the rankings would be quite interesting.
Finding yourself at 18 points would mean fourth place in cohabitation with Lazio, therefore the Champions League: not bad for those who, just three days ago, were navigating the ford of mediocrity. Power of a championship still in its infancy and therefore relatively short, in which you can go from one extreme to the other more easily than usual.
This is why Milan are playing another "final" tonight: if it is true that winning would give credit and impetus to the Gattuso project, it is also true that not doing so would call everything into question. It must be for this reason that the person concerned, for the first time since he sat on the Rossoneri bench, preferred not to appear at the press conference; the concepts, moreover, would have been roughly the same as on Sunday evening, when he had "confronted" the journalists in the post Sampdoria.
On the other hand, Milan continues to be a two-faced team: smiling, derby aside, from the waist up, frowning in the remaining half. The 18 goals scored in 9 games are many (only Juve and Napoli have done better but with one more game), as well as the 13 conceded. Hence a strange classification which, however, can still return to its place, provided, of course, that they beat Genoa.
Gattuso will confirm last Sunday's 4-4-2, net of some almost inevitable shifts. Bonaventura has not been called up, Kessié and Calabria are not well and therefore will catch their breath, for the rest Milan will line up with Donnarumma in goal, Abate, Musacchio, Romagnoli and Rodriguez in defense, Suso, Biglia, Bakayoko and Laxalt in midfield, Higuain and Cutrone in attack.
“They are a great team, especially at San Siro – thought Juric – But we have important qualities and we know we can hurt them”. The coach, still unbeaten after draws with Juve and Udinese, will try to get his first win with a 3-5-2 that will see Radu in goal, Biraschi, Gunter and Criscito in the back, Romulo, Hiljemark, Sandro, Bessa and Lazovic in the midfield to support the offensive pairing made up of Piatek (top scorer with 9 goals but dry for two games) and Pandev.
