This evening Milan will begin their adventure in the Europa League, a competition which they have not appeared in for around three years and have never won even when it was the UEFA Cup.
As Tuttosport (via MilanNews) writes this morning, the story this year is different because a hypothetical trophy win offers a nice treasure – even if nothing like what the Champions League would offer – which absolutely should not be overlooked.
These are the reasons why Pioli will not heavily rotate but instead will field what he feels is his best line up in terms of quality, key men but also condition. For the Rossoneri it is time to look ahead and put aside the disappointment of the Champions League in the first half of the season.
The prestige of a club like Milan and also the situation linked to Pioli – who would like to convince the club to keep him in charge for next season – require Milan to believe they can go all the way to the final in Dublin.
The path to victory also has economic motivations. Assuming Milan lift the trophy in Dublin in May, they would get around €35m plus €3.5m from subsequently qualifying for the UEFA Super Cup.
As mentioned, Pioli will send his best men onto the field for the play-off round first leg against a resurgent Rennes side, demonstrating that Milan want to try to win this competition.
For this reason there will be Matteo Gabbia and Simon Kjaer at centre-back, with Theo Hernandez and Alessandro Florenzi on the flanks.
The midfield will see the return of Tijjani Reijnders who will be in the company of Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Yunus Musah, who will be deployed in place of Yacine Adli and Ismael Bennacer.
The attack will remain the Pulisic-Giroud-Leao trident which has often called to make the difference and, if possible, to take control of the tie tonight.
