AC Milan will welcome AS Roma to San Siro for the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final tie tonight, and it will be a battle of two sides in excellent form.
It will be two Italian rivals meeting in Europe and there is an American flavour two given the ownerships of the two clubs. Milan have won seven in a row coming into the game, while both teams have won eight of their last 11 in the league.
The outcome of the game will be largely influenced by some key battles that take place across the pitch, starting with the one between Rafael Leao and Mehmet Zeki Celik down Milan’s left side.
Before the international break, Leao had 11 goal contributions across all competitions in 2024 and this has continued after his return, with two standout performances, headlined by two goals and an assist. He knows Celik well, with the pair having played together at Lille.
At the other end, arguably the main issue for Milan is stopping Romelu Lukaku, who is a familiar nemesis andhas been involved in 11 goals in his last eight away UEFA Europa League appearances (9 goals, 2 assists).
Lukaku scored in all of his first five appearances in all competitions against Milan but has since failed to score in his last five. It feels like Malick Thiaw might be the man to take him, but Matteo Gabbia will have to do his bet too.
Back to Milan’s attack, Ruben Loftus-Cheek will return to the attacking midfielder role having served a one-game ban during Saturday’s league win over Lecce, and Leandro Paredes will be his opponent as the deeper-lying player of Roma’s midfield three.
Loftus-Cheek has been involved in 11 goals in his 15 Europa League appearances (8 goals, 3 assists), netting four in four for the Italian side this season. He must look to add to that, but also disrupt Paredes who is crucial in the build-up phase, as well as tracking his darts forward.
One of the most interesting duels will be in midfield between Ismael Bennacer and Lorenzo Pellegrini. The Giallorossi captain in particular is experiencing a great period of form, because since De Rossi’s arrival Roma have been on the ball a lot more and he has benefitted from this.
It will be Bennacer’s task above all to be able to counter him and try to defuse his attempts to either shoot from range or supply the front three, while the Algerian also has an important role in build-up too.
Finally, we come to the battle on the Rossoneri’s left side between Theo Hernandez and Paulo Dybala. The Argentine has a rather impressive 22 goal contributions in 30 appearances for Roma (14 goals, eight assists), but he has struggled to stay fit regularly.
When he is on form he is without doubt one of the best creators in Italy, something which will force Theo to be a bit more attentive in the defensive phase, while the full-back must pick his moments to help Leao and cause havoc for Celik given Dybala doesn’t track back much.
I still wish we brought Dybala to Milan when he was going on a free. He is such a classy baller, not many no. 10’s like him around
He is indeed a great and classy player but we would be criticizing the move every time he got injured. Some gambles pay off, some dont. We do it all the time, Puli and RLC were out constantly at chelsea, Dybala was free for a reason. We’ve been lucky with some of our gambles, I am not sure Roma fans would say Dybala was a hit. (or a miss) . lol
30 games 14 goals and 8 assists is pretty successful.
He is the type of player you have to manage his workload, like Baggio in the past.
Then have him primed for those games against the better sides, he is a genius at picking the lock.
Anyway, no matter, hopefully we put on a good performance tonight!
Dybala was free cause he didn’t want to continue with Juventus. Not like they didn’t wanted to keep him. It was his choise. As for Roma he is def a hit. He contributes to more goals for them then Leao for us. He is their best player season after season.
Yeah I gotta agree with Daniel. It would be a huge gamble to sign Dybala. He’d immediately be a top Warner but wouldn’t be able to pull his weight. I remember SO many huge games for Roma where he wasn’t available and that must be really annoying for the fans…
I also had some reservations about the type of player he is. The guy works best as a second striker, while as a winger he does not fit into Milan. He is not explosive enough
He was brought to play for Mourinho’s Roma which sits back to defend. There is no chance Dybala would stay healthy with Milan as he would be expected to do much more running and pressing.
Well if he was at Milan he would play AM, which is not the most demanding role, just look at RLC he hardly runs at all (probably why he is not injured)
He would also do well as a false 9
Thats tru.
I will take a healthy RLC over often-injured Dybala any time.
RLC was bought to play as Mezzala last summer.
It’s more a case of spend 35m on an unproven CDK or get Dybala for FREE and spend 35m on a striker/winger/defender back in 2022
Imagine we had Dybala and another 35m player last year in the CL (where CDK was of no use)
Anyway it’s done now and Pulisic looks good in that role too
All we need to do is at least score 3goals and get a clean sheet. That way we will go through. Forza MILAN
All in all i don’t see Roma as a problem. They are not really good this season. The only team that is weaker than Roma in EL now is Marseille. We avoided all the good teams. That being said we still need to take the game seriously in order to avoid supprices. All in all it should be a rutine win.
We just need to take our chances tonight at home, it won’t be over this evening, so I hope we are in a strong position before the 2nd leg.
We need to be attentive and don’t concede penalties or red cards, as they can always influence a knockout tie
Never underestimates Roma especially now they have a good form under De Rossi.