Serie A Femminile will return this weekend, and the AC Milan Women will return alongside it.
The league will return this Saturday, and they’ll take on Hellas Verona and the Vismara. The match will take place at 12:30 p.m. CET (3:30 a.m. PST / 6:30 a.m. EST).
A background
Prior to this game, Milan last played a match against Fiorentina. The game was for the right to play in the final of the Supercoppa Femminile. Unfortunately, Milan lost that match 2-1.
Fiorentina would emerge the victors of that match 2-1. Milan, on the other hand would emerge from that game with many questions. The first and foremost of which, is why the team played so badly. The team, once again, looked disjointed in the midfield and chose to soak up pressure and play on the counterattack instead of making good use of the attacking talent on their squad.
The Rossonere did so despite the fact that Fiorentina were missing their best players, most notably midfielder Marta Mascarello, who was sidelined due to injury. Their coach, Antonio Cincotta, was also missing from the match, due to testing positive for COVID-19.
And yet, Milan still managed to lose the game. The team initially lined-up in a 3-5-2, before switching to four at the back. Despite the change of formation, Milan still struggled. In particular, centre-back Laura Fusetti did not play well during this match. The defender is usually a solid stalwart. However, she seemed quite off during this game, and committed a few errors.
Milan plays in a pragmatic, defensive style that doesn’t allow room for much creativity. The goal of the team is to win games, and they sacrifice playing well in order to do so. However, that strategy backfired against the Viola.
It’s frustrating to watch, and one wonders if they’ll ever make use of all the talent on the squad.
Coach Maurizio Ganz will need to address this if he wants the team to be more competitive in the future. More importantly, he’ll need to do so if he wants the team to actually win games.
What to expect
One would hope that the loss against Fiorentina will serve as a wake-up call for Milan. However, it’s hard to know how Maurizio Ganz will respond to the last game.
If nothing changes, then expect the team to line-up in a 3-5-2 again. They’ll also field the same players. Ganz is said to be debating over whether to play Christy Grimshaw or Julia Šimić from the start. However, every time we think he’s going to play Šimić, he doesn’t. If Ganz does decide to finally play the talented German midfielder from the start, then it would be quite the surprise. It would also be quite welcome as well.
Their opponents, Hellas Verona, are a youthful squad full of talented upstarts. The team are currently ninth on the Serie A Femminile table. Milan, on the other hand, are in second place.
The Gialloblu also line-up in a 3-5-2 formation. If Milan wants to avoid a war of attrition, then the team should consider playing a different formation against Verona.
Hellas Verona’s two most talented players are goalkeeper Francesca Durante, midfielder Asia Bragonzi and midfielder Sofia Colombo. Milan will need to contain the latter two in order to win this game.
Milan has the edge over Verona in nearly every department, and expect the Rossonere to emerge the victors of this match. And they’ll do so, even if they don’t play well.
How to watch
Sky, TimVision, Milan TV, Dailymotion, the AC Milan app
