Fiorentina - AC Milan Preview 07/04/2013

Post 10 :)


It's been a long season, and a good one for Riccardo Montolivo. I'm starting this post with him because we all know he was Fiorentina's captain for 7 seasons. Now he returns to Stadio Artemio Franchi (Fiorentina's stadium) in the Rossoneri's shirt as Milan's sub-captain. 

Riccardo Montolivo in Fiorentina

Our toughest series of matches in this final half of the season starts Sunday at lunchtime with a trip to Firenze to meet La Viola. Despite being down, they are not out, and they would desperately like our third place spot. Also, they beat us 3-1 back in November at the San Siro, so they definitely know how to punish us. Will Milan pull out the win, whether by our own volition or by our infamous luck? Or will this match finally be our breaking point?

After Galliani cunningly complained about the abnormalities of the season due to the Is Arena right as Fiorentina were facing Cagliari, only 3 points behind us, Fiorentina’s woes actually got worse. First, they did go to Is Arenas, after all, and they ended up losing and dropping three precious points. Then they lost Jovetic to injury and Gonzalo Rodriguez to suspension, too. Ouch. And, of course, Milan pulled off the win away to Chievo, so here they stand 6 points behind us and without a couple of key players. Will this be their breaking point?

Milan has a not-so-secret ingredient we didn’t have in November in Super Mario. Well, that, and Allegri also stopped tinkering like a compulsive gambler with the lineups. Certainly, those are significant advantages to the team that failed to defend the San Siro in November. But on the flip side, we also have Montolivo. Despite him playing very well for us, and quite consistently, I might add, Fiorentina’s former captain is coming home for the first time to the fans who hate him for leaving them for Milan. Needless to say, the expected banners, whistles, and jeers, as well as the overall emotion for him could prove to upset his game.

As for Allegri, he could have a mostly-full squad to choose from, including Constant and Niang back from their flu bouts and hopefully Pazzini back from his injury. It was Pazzini who pulled back one goal for us and ruined Viviano’s clean sheet back in November. But Allegri is undoubtedly going to start Balotelli and El Shaarawy up front. Who starts in that third spot will depend on fitness and whom Allegri trusts, too.

Our midfield is likely to consist of Montolivo, possibly Ambrosini, and one or two of our utilitarian-but-not-decisive midfielders. And the defense… well just when you think it’s predictable, Allegri has a lot of choices. Will Zapata and Constant get their starting spots back? It’s hard to say. I think we all pray that we won’t see Bonera again, or Antonini, for that matter. Most anyone else could do a decent job. And of course, Allegri would have to be crazy or Abbiati injured to start anyone else ahead of him.

This will be a tough match. They will want to close the six point gap we’ve managed to put between us, we are still chasing Napoli for that second place spot. They are missing their talisman in Jovetic, and we… well, we are still pretty lucky. Both teams are at crucial points in the season and both will fight to the final whistle for a result. This game could easily be either team’s breaking point. Hopefully Fiorentina's.

Forza Milan!

And for laughs, check out Robinho making fun of Boateng's new hairstyle today:

Boateng's new hairstyle

Chievo 0:1 AC Milan 30/03/2013

The Rossoneri had their fourth win in a row in Serie A. This time, Chievo fell down on their knees on their home stadium.

In the second last match of the 30^th round in Serie A, AC Milan played in Verona against Chievo and won with the goal from Ricardo Montolivo. The Milan number 18 had a superb game where he scored the only goal in the 90 minutes on the soaked Chievo stadium. Montolivo scored in the 25^th minute. It was a series of free kicks awarded to Milan that got the game started. Super Mario Balotelli was the executioner of all of them. Now the Chievo goalkeeper did a decent job with keeping the ball out of the net. But in the 25^th minute, a hard right footed shot left made the keeper.

The Rossoneri succeeded in holding the 1 goal advantage until the end to get the much needed three points. With these three points, AC Milan are still in the race for the second place in Serie A. Unfortunately, Napoli beat Torino 5-3 and that left Milan still 2 points behind them. Now we are just hoping for a bad result for Napoli which would mean AC Milan stealing the second spot which reserves a spot in the Champions League for next season.

3 Things We Learned From The Game:

Super Mario is expected to score in every game now.  Against Chievo, he came close about a dozen times and it was his thunderous strike from a set piece which was parried by the goalkeeper right on the foot of an onrushing Riccardo Montolivo who netted in comfortably. Balotelli almost repeated the same trick minutes later as he thumped in another low free-kick sensing the Chievo keeper Christian Puggioni’s weakness with the dead ball situation, but this time Puggioni cleared the ball before the Milan players could get it.

Milan continued to dominate large spells of possession in the water logged Cheivo pitch and Balotelli fired in as many as 5 free-kicks before the half time break and if not for Chievo’s resolute defenders Balotelli could have scored an hat-trick. His average rating Serie A matches should tell the story of the player’s improvement since his move to Milan.

On Sunday 7 April at 12:30, Milan travel to Florenec to face Fiorentina at the Franchi stadium in the city.