It’s already time for a rematch between Lazio and AC Milan, five days after the drama that erupted in Saturday’s meeting at San Siro.
As Corriere della Sera (via MilanNews) reports this morning, tonight the two teams will meet again in the Coppa Italia round of 16. A hostile atmosphere is expected after the VAR drama that took place at the end of the game a few days ago, which Milan ended up winning 1-0.
Limited rotation
Massimiliano Allegri is well aware of what awaits in Rome, as he revealed to Mediaset: “We’ll find a great atmosphere, as always, in Rome. We’re playing against Lazio in the Coppa Italia round of 16: it’s an important objective for both teams. It will be a great match against a tough team, as we saw on Saturday.”
The paper describes it as ‘thoughtful rotation’ that Allegri will go for. He will rest players like Matteo Gabbia and Luka Modric, but will also field several regular starters like Mike Maignan, Fikayo Tomori, Strahinja Pavlovic, Alexis Saelemaekers, Adrien Rabiot and Rafael Leao.
The most significant change to the line-up will be in midfield, where there’s great anticipation to see Ardon Jashari back in action in competitive matches after more than three months out. Jashari will replace Modric in front of the defence (Samuele Ricci and Rabiot will be alongside him).
On the left, Davide Bartesaghi will be replaced by Pervis Estupinan, while Koni De Winter will be in the centre of the three-man defence. For tonight’s match, Allegri has got Christian Pulisic back, but he will start on the bench. Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Rafael Leao will be the front two.
Doubt there’s gonna be a lot of understanding/chemistry between Rabiot/Jashari/Ricci but hopefully it’s not a train wreck.