AC Milan head coach Paulo Fonseca has named his starting line-up for the Champions League game against Real Madrid tonight.
It was known prior to the game that Milan’s absentees are Matteo Gabbia (calf), Alessandro Florenzi (knee), Ismael Bennacer (calf) and Luka Jovic (back, and not in the Champions League squad).
As was reported in the build-up, Fonseca has elected to go with a defensive line of Emerson Royal, Malick Thiaw, Fikayo Tomori and Theo Hernandez ahead of Mike Maignan.
Youssouf Fofana and Tijjani Reijnders will rather make up the midfield double pivot once again, with Yunus Musah also starting the game as well. Christian Pulisic, Rafael Leao and Alvaro Morata are the three forwards.
The big question mark concerns whether the coach has gone for a 4-3-3 system with Musah-Fofana-Reijnders as a trio, or if it will be more of a 3-4-3 with the American as a right wing-back.
Official Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Emerson, Thiaw, Tomori, Theo Hernandez; Fofana, Reijnders; Musah, Pulisic, Leao; Morata.
Bench: Sportiello, Torriani; Calabria, Pavlović, Terracciano; Loftus Cheek; Abraham, Camarda, Chukwueze, Okafor.
Official Real Madrid XI (4-4-2): Lunin; Lucas Vazquez, Rudiger, Militao, Mendy; Valverde, Modric, Tchouaméni; Bellingham; Mbappé, Vinicius.
Bench: Fran Gonzalez, Sergio Mestre, Camavinga, Rodrygo, Arda Guler, Endrick, Vallejo, Ceballos, Fran Garcia, Brahim Diaz.
I used to pray for times like this loftus benched
Why did we buy Pavlovic, who preforms amazing every week, just to put thiaw on every time it really matters😡
Relief RLC is not starting, he will help the team in second half….
It’s amazing how after two summers of big spending our starting midfield is still missing a proper defensive midfielder AND our midfield bench is razor thin. Not even a Futuro/primavera central midfielder to help, just RLC. It’s crazy.
Hopefully a 433 and all the players will be playing in their natural positionss. 343 would be too big a change from a back 4 and may not have the right amount of practice for the adjustments . Forza Milan!!!
These sort of matches has their own life and sometimes can go either way but realistically speaking we are on paper clearly overmatched and plays on away soil so we will most likely have to accept that this wont be an especially joyous evening for us.
If we can pull out something extraordinary out of our sleeves and show true warrior mentality all over the field and have our share of luck then maybe just maybe we can prevail and get a draw or a win but personally I wouldn’t bet my money on that to happen.
In my view the most likely scenario is that we will get steamrolled and end up losing in a heavy defeat, something like 4/5-0
I’ll hope for the best though but if we are trailing behind 3-0 at half time then I’ll most likely change channel and watch the American election instead. Either way even in the event of a loss lets at least fall with pride and honor intact.
I haven’t commented about this upcoming match before because I really think we won’t go down so easily as many here predict.
I think we’ll show same courage and grit as against Inter. These type of matches have something extra in them.
Or is it just my wishful thinking…
We usually do really well when we get forced to play counter attacking football, not sure I’d say wishful thinking. But its a full stacked Real Madrid at the end of the day, hopefully we can do something
Nah, not wishful thinking. I believe we would give everyone a surprise by winning this game.
We show more grit when playing against big teams so far this season.
I think the boys should play this game with nothing to lose. Just go all out and leave everything on the field. Nobody’s expecting us to win this game anyway. And the remaining four games are winnable.
Having said that, again, I would love to see this team for once defend deep and hit hard on the counter.
This. The final four matches are all very winnable. If we win all four we’ll have 15 pts, which should be more than enough to make the next round. We might just sneak into the top 8, although unlikely.
I don’t expect a win whatsoever from this match. Theo and Mbape (French) would be amazing, Vini (who will hope Leao will have 70% of his qualities) vs Royal (Brazilian) would be interesting to watch. Milan could score a goal or two but I don’t see us not conceding three even with Mike’s heroics. Happy watching
Its annoying that most of the comments are negative if we are true fans we need to support the team ….. Win Win We go Forza Milan
Being pragmatic isn’t the same as being negative and I’m pretty sure we all hope we win as much as the next guy.
I see it as a win-win. We all want the club to win and all of us are glued to the tv. These matches are the ones we cherish. If we get a good result, hopefully, it is the energy needed for the team to gel and get consistent results. If we dont, perhaps, it’s a sign to the management that changes are needed. (players, coaches, trainers, whatever). So, it’s a win win, let’s enjoy it, put on your t-shirt and good luck.
In unrelated but funny news. Balotelli, 5 mins and already got a yellow. hahaha gotta love the guy
Well I highly doubt that this match will be decisive for anyone unless we really really end up humiliated beyond what can be expected as Real Madrid clearly are the strongest team. I’ll argue that 9 of their 11 starting players compared to our starting XI is better then ours. Then there also is their bench which also is stronger than ours.
Stranger things has happened though as I also saw Odense Boldklub beating Real Madrid 2-1 at Bernabeu in the 90es but we are nevertheless massive underdogs.
I think the win win situation is that the expectation isn’t high for us so we can only surprise.
I hadn’t even seen that Balotelli had joined them 😀
And we finally win Forza Milan
Don’t forget that the year Chelsea won the UCL, in the semifinals, Pulisic strolled left to right through the entire Madrid defense before beating Courtois to the near post at a steep angle, in Madrid, then made almost the same run, cutting the ball back to Mount for an assist in London, contributing two of Chelsea’s three goals in the tie.
There’s always hope, until the second final whistle blows!
My take is that with Leo on the pitch , we cam do something. This is d kind of game Leao plays well. Real Madrid is beatable.
Musah again. You would be better off with Zeroli, Liberali, or Vos. I am going to cry.
I’m hoping leao comes good in this game. Two goals from him would be nice. But can see Theo scoring with the classic combining with leao. And obviously pulisic is always got a goal in him. Should be a good game. It could go either way. Could be distrastrous. Fonseca will hopefully have a few tricks lined up with the formation. But not a huge deal if we lose
As theoden famously says in ttt ‘so it begins’
😀 Thiaw
Almost a red – if the ref had shown yellow, VAR would have looked at it and Thiawww
Theo’s suicidal pass across goal set that penalty up…
Theo didn’t tell Emerson unroyal to do a bad slide tackle
Both should take responsibility in that goal and Theos pass was downright atrocious…. so was Royals attempt to make a sliding tackle in the penalty area.
Hahaha Morata
Musah bossing mf
I always get nervous seeing his name on the starting XI but never hated him. Is this one of his best performances in a Milan shirt? 🤔
I’ve always said that Musah is better in high intensity matches. He’s fearless and goes for it. Good for these games.
He’s been terrible
Can we please buy a RB in January?
Silly mistakes lead to a Madrid goal, but great response from the boys. Madrid whistled off the pitch by the Bernabeu at the half! We’re totally in this match.
Game on!
No one I mean absolutely no one is passing to Emerson royal everytime he makes a forward run they never pass to him.
Our passing game looked surprisingly good in this first half. Let’s hope that we can maintain this pace and level of play in the second half as well. I liked Musah, he ran a lot, he combined the play very well on his side, he showed that he has great potential as a player at his age. I liked Leao, you can see that he is motivated by the stakes of the game and I wish he was motivated every game the same…
This first half was the most confident against a big club I have seen Milan play in years.
Form what I’ve seen in the first half, Madrid are there for the taking.
Our only weak spot I see is RB
Madrid’s defence looks shaky and ‘spacy’. We should take advantage of this situation.
What a cross by Royal – where’s Giroud when you need him? 😅
Musah is putting in one hell of a shift
Vini Jr is a spoilt brat
3-1! Unbelievable!
Haha Madrid weren’t prepared for this.. well not many were. I can watch the rest of the game with comfort now.
F’ing Yessssss 3-1 Reijnders
By the way for now glad to be disproven 😛
Brilliant absolutely brilliant 🙂
TIJJI!!!
Seems like real needs a rb more than we. Calabria will be available soon
Skinned twice by VJ in the first 5 minutes he was on…
idk what one has to do with the other
Sooo. The same Reijnders that didn’t know how to score or hold the ball under Pioli is now doing wonders and someone here was trying to lecture us that Fonseca hasn’t improved most of these players right ? Y’all must be kidding me if you’re not seeing improvements under Fonseca. I continue to say it, LET HIM COOK!
Mizuno to Nike. I played in mizuno boots. Terrible, stuck with my Lotto Vento’s till I stopped playing
Rossi will call that goal another “tap in.”
Rossi is a stunade
Musah is playing his best game in a Milan shirt
By far
Goodness !! I can’t believe what I’m watching.
Is it that Milan have been that good or Madrid have been just poor. Or a combination of both.
Our game to loose now, well that shouldn’t be an option now ryt
How did RLC not score that
I got to give 👏 tonight to both Reijnders and Musah. Reijnders is finding his ground and Musah is working his socks off.
But something must be recognized – we’re far more superior with Leao on the field.
An entertaining match and a great display from all of our lads who work tirelessly and as a proper team, regardless of the final outcome.
Re Leao, maybe. Maybe his benching sent a message. Maybe he’s better against clubs that play an open attacking game in the CL as opposed to the more compact style of most Serie A defenses. We’ll see as the season unfolds and Fonseca continues to figure things out.
Again we are so so so lucky
Mike doing his best to sabotage us, TWICE. We do we lose our heads like this?
I can’t believe Loftus-Cheek miss that chance !!!
Leao has been good in this game. 5 at the back when real have the ball is working well. Still some luck on our side. With maignan saves too. Still good from pulisic but seems to be a little quiet since hes had the flu. And wait what… Fonseca is using his subs…
Monza was tougher than this
Indeed
Poor sub taking Musah out. He has that wing and right channel locked down
Well well well, Vini all of a sudden owning that side
Calabria getting roasted surprise surprise…
Too many injuries. I think his knees are done
Dude he’s horrible haha
Shameful display after being out for a month with injury. He should be well rested and prepared.
Calabria had played a couple of minutes since mid September so that is by no means fair ….unless you actually are being sarcastic here.
Our best game our season.
By far.
Man…what a display tonight from our boys ! Finally…such a joy. We win a big game after so long time… Whole team play great, even Royal 😆😆, but for me Musah was extraordinary tonight and couple Thiaw-Tomori.
Oh definitely MOTM
What a game…. why can’t we see this kind of determination every game.. they played good.usah and rejndrrs were superberb. Leao seems to enjoy the big arenas, much better from him. Some are saying that we were lucky because real missed a few chances. But missed a few chances too. Real is in a bad shape this year, but we’ll take it. Congarts to the boys and every milan fan out there.
Great match from us but truth be told both teams had many great chances but overall we was the rightful winners in my book but various chances could have made other scenarios for the match.
Could have been 5-5 result wise but ecstatic that it went our way and a great reason why that it went that way was due to Maignans saves, Madrid and us fighting as a team throughout the entire match.
Beautiful match and result and one of the most exciting games I’ve watched for a while that I actually cared a lot about.