Opponents on Saturday in the league, Milan and Juventus face Europe again on the same evening, this time a couple of hours apart. Juve’s match is simpler, Milan’s more important. Juve must win in Haifa, Milan may not beat Chelsea. If Juve does not score 3 points, they say goodbye to the Champions League with 2 games to spare, beyond what the arithmetic will say in the 90th minute. Milan remains in the game even with a draw, postponing qualification to the next matches.
So why does it count more for Milan than for Juventus? Because the night of Stamford Bridge is too recent to be already behind them and the Pioli gang needs an immediate and important counter-proof to fuel self-esteem. The direct clash against Juventus did a lot, a team today much inferior to the Italian champions, even more than what the 7 points behind in the standings already say, but Leao and his companions need a real, great night of Europe to broaden their limits and horizons. They are the champions of Italy and so far they have lost only once, against Napoli and not deserving it, despite the absence of Leao. They remain the favorites for the Scudetto and from Europe they can draw awareness of the role, which is why the match against Chelsea is important. Even more than for the ranking.
Without De Ketelaere, but with Theo Hernandez, compared to the first leg the change for Pioli is clearly ahead, even if the ranks continue to be largely incomplete, and it could not be otherwise. Just to think that Giroud – 36 years old – is at the 11th consecutive presence as owner, gives an idea of the emergency experienced in recent weeks by Pioli. The absence of CDK is a left-handed blow in the plan of acclimatization of the Belgian talent, staying out will not accelerate the adaptation and who knows if it will affect his not yet certain call to the World Cup (which then if he remains out of Martinez’s 23, so bad for Pioli would not be…). Chelsea are a sidereal team, there was no match last week. Not losing would be important, winning would have the flavor of the company and would be worth the round of 16, but Milan could then equally grab, against Salzburg and Zagreb, those opponents to beat.
Stamford Bridge did not turn off Milan, just as beating Bologna and Maccabi in the first leg did not turn Juventus back on. There are categories, it is a question of knowing and distinguishing them. Allegri with that pretended naive air, he cannot present himself to explain the defeat against Milan by saying “after 2 victories we thought we were out of it and instead we are still in it”, because everyone had seen that those 2 victories had above all statistical value, just wanting to look at it. At San Siro the level was raised and Juve fell once again. In Haifa, perhaps and we hope, she will win a game away from Turin for the first time this season, but it will not be enough to shout that she has recovered from the travel sickness. To really say it, it will rather be done at del Toro’s house, already on Saturday, or better still in Lisbon, on 25 October. Let’s say therefore that it is obliged to win, but the victory will not guarantee anything for the Champions League standings or to judge the health of the team.
@GianniVisnadi
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