By Petar Todorovski
AC Milan travel to Genoa for the next Serie A task. They face the same name home side, a mid table team without great ambitions in this season. However, they will be highly motivated to not let down their fans against, at this moment, the greatest Italian team.
Milan players must not take this game for granted, as they’re not the same team from November and December that smashed everything that showed up on their way. Rossoneri failed to win three of the last five games in Serie A, dropping points against teams like Udinese and Lecce in the process. They usually got the job done in an hour, but now in occasions they struggle to do it until the full time whistle.
However, they’re clear favorites against their next rival. Genoa are real mediocre side, failing to steal some points from the matches with best teams in the league. They have won only one game from the last seven Serie A battles, scoring only on two of them. The scoring crisis now could go deeper with the transfer of Luca Toni to Juventus. Believe it or not, now Genoa has only one striker in the top 50 list, with Antinio Floro Flores’ miserable record of three goals on 48th place.
Genoa will have to face the table toppers without few players. Antonelli, Dainelli, Jelenic, Sturaro and Bosselli are all unavailable due to injuries, while there are no suspended players. Domenico Criscito, Miguel Veloso and Destro are doubtful.
The situation with absentees in Milan’s squad is even worse. Phillipo Inzaghi, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Gianluca Zambrotta, Alessandro Nesta, Massimo Ambrosini, Ignazio Abate, Nicola Legrotaglie and Marco Amelia are all injured. Fortunately, Andrea Pirlo started with trainings last week and might be available to play, while new signing Didac Vila still has to settle in the club and will probably wait for another match to show his talents.
Despite the injuries, Milan have strengthened the squad this winter, so this huge number of injuries shouldn’t be problem, at least against Genoa. Antinio Cassano added a lot of option in their attack, so now Massimiliano Allegri combines him with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, deploying Robinho just behind them. If Pirlo really return this weekend, we can expect better Rossonero defensive line, as Thiago Silva would return to the position where he gives his best – centre back. That makes us expect nothing but another Milan victory this weekend, and probably extending the gap ahead of Scudetto rivals.
