AC Milan will take on Sassuolo in the Coppa Italia last 16 tomorrow night, and that means Domenico Berardi will be returning to San Siro.
This morning’s edition of Tuttosport (via PianetaMilan) reports that Fabio Grosso’s side will make the trip hoping to cause an upset by knocking Milan out. Given that they are top of Serie B and on course for an instant return to the top flight, they will be full of confidence.
Berardi is expected to start for the Neroverde, as he continued to get back to his best after the ruptured Achilles tendon he suffered last season. He returned to the field in October after a seven-month absence, one which ultimately prevented him moving to a bigger club in Serie A.
He has seven appearances with one goal and six assists so far this season, but now he has Milan in his sights and it is a game that he seems to like. In his career the Italian has scored 11 goals against the Rossoneri, and Paolo Maldini actually wanted him in summer 2023 before being sacked.
The most striking example was on 12 January 2014 when he scored all four games in a 4-3 win for Sassuolo at home over Milan, a match that got Massimiliano Allegri the sack. He has scored three against the Diavolo at San Siro, and even four against Inter.
What is interesting is that Milan decided not to go for Berardi when Maldini left and instead opted to sign Christian Pulisic and Samuel Chukwueze. The former has been a big success while the latter has been more inconsistent.
What does the future hold for Berardi? In January he could make a leap to the top flight before Sassuolo do (should they stay on track for promotion) because Atalanta, Roma and some teams abroad are watching him. Tomorrow night could be an audition of sorts.
7 matches: 1 goal + 7 assists. I guess he has recovered well from his serious injury. I wouldn’t mind upgrading Chuku with him.
2 old and 2 injury prone. The age isn’t even that much of an issue but combined with constant injuries. It’s only gonna escalate for him.
We still have romero. Maybe we should give him a proper chance instead of shipping him to Spain every transfer window
Very strong player,confident,Italian,profi,plays in Serie A his whole life.Have I said he is an Italian already?The question is how is his recovery going,and how much from old Berardi we will see.Maybe a transfer in january would not be ideal solution,lets wait a bit ,he is going to need some time to recover
Well, the answer to your question about his recovery is already said in the first comment. He’s back. 🙂
I’m with you bb and Beradi certainly comes with more guarantees than Chukwueze does. He can probably be bought for roughly 10 mil and we should be able to also get that sort of money for the Nigerian in the event we sell him in the summer.
Imagine if we had both Puli and Berardi. iirc Chelsea offered a rumoured 90m plus Puli for Leao. And with some of that $ we were going to get Berardi, RLC and SMS (can’t recall if it was one of the latter two, and probably in the summer). But then we wouldn’t have had Leao. Choices 🤷♂️
Puli wouldn’t surrender his spot to Berardi as a RW. And is Berardi “defensive” enough to help cover for Emerson? The Brazilian has become like a handicap for anyone playing the RW.
he is handicapped, virtually every winger in serie A or any league will always go past him. I just wondered how that guy made it to the Brazilian league or ended up in England, he is crap
At his age right now I’d take Berardi as a sub and capable back up. Puli needs the load management so it’s not like Berardi won’t get minutes. And Berardi is capable of scoring/as.isting off the bench.
For the right price ofc. The only thing is his injury history