AC Milan head coach Stefano Pioli has made some changes to the starting line-up for the game against Hellas Verona compared to the team that beat Slavia Praha.
Pioli has just one unavailable player for the game, something that has not been the case for a while: Tommaso Pobega will not be present for the game at the Stadio Bentegodi as he continues to recover from surgery.
The Milan boss has named a back four of Davide Calabria, Pierre Kalulu, Fikayo Tomori and Theo Hernandez ahead of the goalkeeper Mike Maignan, with Matteo Gabbia, Malick Thiaw and Simon Kjaer therefore missing out.
In midfield the double pivot pairing of Ismael Bennacer and Tijjani Reijnders has been reunited, with Ruben Loftus-Cheek again operating in a more advanced role.
Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leao keep their places on the right and left wing respectively, with Noah Okafor the man tasked to lead the line as Olivier Giroud, Luka Jovic and Samuel Chukwueze start on the bench.
Official Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Calabria, Kalulu, Tomori, Theo Hernandez; Bennacer, Reijnders; Pulisic, Loftus-Cheek, Leao; Okafor.
Bench: Sportiello, Nava, Adli, Giroud, Jovic, Chukwueze, Kjaer, Thiaw, Terracciano, Florenzi, Gabbia, Musah.
Official Verona XI (4-2-3-1): Montipò; Centonze, Coppola, Dawidowicz, Cabal; Duda, Serdar; Suslov, Folorunsho, Lazovic; Noslin.
Bench: Chiesa, Perilli, Belahyane, Tavsan, Mitrovic, Swiderski, Ruben Vinagre, Dani Silva, Magnani, Bonazzoli, Tchatchoua, Lima Pontes.
Okafor at striker? Interesting
Finally
Why is Gabbia benched?
He has been soo good and deserves to start.
Yeah wanna see Gabbia starts and also Terracciano plays against his former club 😀
Rotation. Gabbia doesn’t have to play EVERY game. With Tomori on a yellow he may come in. Or maybe Thiaw I don’t know.
Okafor hattrick… Imagine that! About time he starts as the CF. Maybe he has at the start of the season.. giroud obviously is good at nice lay offs link up but man he misses a lot of easy goals. Okafor has been good at positioning himself in the box and deserves to have more goals so far. It’s nice to have so many options for spots now with no injuries. Would like to see kalulu play RB again but there’s still some time in the season for that. Gabbia has played alot since he’s come back and was a little rough in Europe with his challenges so needs some rest.
I will never get Pioli and some of his choices…. For me, Gabbia is currently a sure starter. I like Kalulu but straight in after a long injury… not sure about that one.
well i like gabbia as well and always has but its not like kalulu is just thrown in as he has he gotten 27 minutes against empoli and 45 against prague so it does actually make sense to start him now regardless if he might not keep his spot in the next match we play.
Just noticed that Juventus at home drew 0-0 with genoa so hopefully we will be able to build upon the lead from last round.
Ok that was good, but we’re waiting for extraordinary news regarding the slipping away inter di merda right 😀
Yeah that would be nice and i probably will also watch that match as well later to see if oshimen or kvaraskhelia can rattle inter to some extent.
No..Tomori just missed big chance to score.
What a strike by Okafor, but the Verona’s goalkeeper was equal to the task.
Bennacer still looks a bit off.
Yep. He’s taking a while to get back to 100%. But still better than what we have 🤦♂️
Why are we still sending empty crosses into the box?
I mean we don’t really have that aerial presence in the box without Giroud or even Jovic.
Also what a hit from Okafor! Deserved a goal tbh
Pulisic pulisic pulisic, pulisic everyday
Fuck pioli
Man, Kalulu’s positioning thus far has been terrible. We’re risking…
And tomori’s already been yellow carded
Benny’s corners are pretty bad.
Noo Reindeers why he kicked ball into empty verona’s seats
What a dumpster fire of a goal. Hahaha well done Theo.
Goallllll Theo
Cracking match. We’re risking bit going all out and finishing could be better, but cracking match. Great goal by Theo.
Did anyone catch why Theo got a yellow??? He looked confused about it, as am I.
Pretty sure it’s because he made the “keep talking” hand gesture and the ref interpreted it as targeting someone.
Agreed. “Taunting” opposition fans.
Not really sure but I think it might have been that he gestures was seen as mocking them afterwards but isnt too sure but regardless he will miss the next match. Im confident we will do fine though but nevertheless a dumb card if i am right in my assessments and i was starting to get a bit worried if he would pick up another one after arguing with the ref after the first half had finished.
Anyways a pretty good first half but rather inefficient in front of goal as we could have scored maybe 3-4 goals.
Gabbia back. Prayers answered.
Yep, Pioli must have seen what I was seeing re Kalulu. Or he aggravated an injury.
Great game so far. Let’s keep it up boys. Creating some some space from the 3rd place is nice.
Still interpreting Kalulu as a CB instead of RB I see….
To be fair kalulus best performances for us has been at the cb position and even though he has fairly rarely been fielded at the rb his performances there hasnt been the same. Not that i oppose playing him there from time to time and maybe a lot more if florenzi leaves the club in 25 which he most likely will.
Boom! 2-0 Captain America!
Game over I think (I hope)!
Hard to say. Pioli has a hard time closing out games. Hopefully you’re right.
I can see okafor becoming better than leao. And offers so much more than giroud and jovic in CF. Hope he gets a goal today.. maybe not a hattrick now. Maybe we don’t need zirkzee and just keep playing okafor… Maybe getting carried away haha
getting a lot off 500 today.. site crashing 😀
same here but i realized that if one page might not load then try a different one and then return to the one you want to visit, it seems to work instead of just reentering the same right away.
That was an amazing strike. But again, we aren’t closing out games.
Oh FFS.
This is why you never stop pushing forward even when you’re 10-0 up. we stopped playing and started passing backwards immediately we were 1-0 up. smdh
Pulisic unhappy with being subbed off, and I get him.
I mean he was the best Milan player on the pitch.
Here I am thinking clean sheet 🤦♂️.and then boom! Sigh
I dont get the subs after the goal though.
Does Musah mean we go to a 3an mid in the middle.of the game with the other team having momentum?
It’s always a 3 man midfield. Ahahahaha
Lol 😂 I thought was the SOS 😁
Come on Leao u had to score that to wrap it up
HOW. DID. HE. MISS. THAT.
That inconsistency in front of goal is why Leao will never be top drawer.
Typical poor sub choice by Pioli…
I think Pioli has been spot on with the subs this game except for bringing Giroud on. I would have left him at CF and just brought Chuk on for Puli.
I think Bennacer should’ve been subbed off, he shouldn’t be playing full 90s yet
Chukwueze finally!
Let’s hope this builds up his confidence.
Big big goal for Chukwueze. Exactly what he needed.
Chukwueze. Hopefully it will give him some extra confidence.
Already more effective than CDK last season 😁
Sure but i nevertheless still like cdk and as ive said many times before he could easily have had 5 assists in his first 10´matches had it not been for his teammates blunders infront of goal. It might have changed the course. Anyways very happy for Chukwueze and hopefully it will help him to blossom further with us.
WOOOOOOOOOW!!! CHUKY!!!!
Nice goal chuku!
What wonders a goal could do. Second shot was close to target too and he looks livelier that he’s even been before
Chukuweze still looks lost on the pitch but yaaaas! He gets his goal. Hopefully that’s the spark he needs
rafa made a slide. Legend
Noslin… Might need to keep an eye on him in serie a…. Got a good shot on him and is cheap as chips
Bennacer struggling today. Touches and passes have been off.
Good win even though I think we made it a bit too nervy up until Chukwuezes goal as we could have maybe scored 5-6 goals in it, it was nevertheless a good performance but we just lacked efficiency as we missed some pretty open chances.
Good game. Good performances all around. I understand Pulisics frustration with being subbed off, but we do have many games ahead.
I actually like Verona and I wish them all the luck in avoiding relegation, but we needed those three points to solidify our CL status and 2nd place.
Yeah every player should be disapointed if they gets subbed off or start on the bench but in case of Pulisic he will also have a long international travel and play already on Friday which should be taken into the equation.
Same here and I also had some sympathy for their former rivals Chievo Verona, Im from Denmark and I was in Verona at some point and they really love Preben Elkjæer and danes down there so that was pretty fun to visit that city 😀
Looks bad for juve in the next few games… A possible third position up for grabs for bologna.. maybe I’m dreaming
Even if it turns out to only be a dream its nevertheless a very nice dream 😀
Juve have only once in the past eight I think..