Another day, another match. A six-pointer seeing as Juventus are our rival for the league. We've got a chance to climb back to 2nd place if we win our clash against the Old Lady. This is technically our second toughest opposition after inter, so a morale-boosting victory would work in our favor keeping in mind the remaining three hard matches before the winter break. And finally a chance to dish it out to that clown Amauri, and their joker of a keeper. But beware of Piero, as always. The stadium where the match will be played:



Anyhoo, time for some stats between the two clubs, current rankings, head to head, top scorers, etc.









Date: Sunday, 14 December, 2008
Time: 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm GMT
Place: Stadio Olimpico di Torino

Forza Milan!

(big edit to change the picture, as well as the venue of the match)

I'm going to beat zd to the pessimistic post corner.

This one is going to be very hard for Milan to win. Known absences for Milan include: Nesta, Borriello, Bonera (who according to an aritcle I read this morning may actually need surgery) and Gattuso. If they play, neither Ambrosini nor Pirlo will be match fit. Seedorf is nursing a knock. So is Ronaldinho, who seems to get in Kaka's way when he plays. Etc.

That said, I'm not willing to COMPLETELY count Milan out. This is a special game, almost like a derby. Strange things happen in games like this. I think it'll be a reasonably close game.

Gazzetta predict that Sissoko and Marchisio will start. They will absolutely dominate the midfield, there is no way Emerson can in anyway compete with either of these, physically, tactically or mentally. Lets hope he gets injured warming up so someone can take his place

Edit: I thought we had it bad with Injuries. Juve trump us there

Andrade, Zebina, Trezeguet, Buffon, Salihamidzic, Knezevic, Poulsen, Tiago plus Legro suspended

Should be fun to see Mellberg play officiall against Milan, huh Kurt? Also look at the difference between our scoring rate and theirs: they've scored every 47 minutes this season to our one goal in every 75. We even take a full hour to score at home. Scary!

Mellberg and Shevchenko on the same field.

Obviously I want Milan to win, but hopefully Olly has a good game.

I predict a defeat. No idea what the score will be, but it will be in Juve's favour.

Milan 2-3 Juve.

Fair enough.


There goes my unbeaten run. Of thread openings, that is.


Reverse it for me. 3-2 Milan. Or draw. 1-1.

0-0.

OMG. when did he .. how did he ... ?!

And our management insisting we're not going to move for a defender in January to me it's like saying they don't care about the Scudetto.

One good defender more or less could make a LOT of difference in our position in the league in 31 May...

You beat me to it.

3-1 milan

win for milan, i'm sure...2-1, we'll have a lead 2-0, and then concede a stupid kaladze goal, but it'll be ok, for kaka's and sheva's goal hehe, do you wanna know who's gonna get booked

No, thank you. Please drive through.

I want Dida to start this match, because he always plays well against Juve. Then again, I'd like Santa to bring me a pony as well.

I did a little snooping on the Juve forums.

Some don't have a match thread up for this game yet because Juve play a CL game on Wednesday against BATE. The Gobbi are already qualified but they need a draw at least to qualify in first place (unless Zenit beat Real at the Bernabeu). The feeling seems to be that perhaps some players will be rested or will only play part of the game, but others (including the back 4) are expected to play the full 90.

Then again, when the Milan game is mentioned on the Juve forums, 'win at all costs' seems to be the prevalent thought among Juve fans.

Milan 2 - 1 Juventus
Inzaghi
Kaka'
Amauri

Haha, good on you Tennie. I have to take a bath every time I visit a Juve site/forum.

Rino getting suspended puts us in a really tight corner...

Hopefully we'll get atleast Seedorf and Ambro back so having to play Emerson in this one will be avoided. And Seedorf always does great against the zebras.

In attack Pato obviously should start. I'm not quite sure on who should start between Sheva and Pippo if Dinho is still injured. Sheva I think would give us more cutting edge and help the attack more even if he doesn't score, while Pippo likes to play against Juve and almost always scores against them. Don't know if it would be best to give them a half each, and who would get the first half and who gets the second. But if Dinho is fit, we'll see the xmas tree with Pippo as the loan striker, even if Pato atm deserves the striker spot the most out of all our strikers.

Guys we are playing away remember.............not at home its Juventus - Milan no wonder its a win at all cost for Juventini they are playing at HOME !!! it kinda makes sense given that Juve played away to Lecce and us at home to Catania...i wish we were playing at home tho

I'm assuming you're referring to Juventuz. They're particularly venomous towards Milan, perhaps even more so than the Merda forums.

MILAN WILL WIN

Hey, hey, hey! Wait a minute...Alex Manninger is a very good second keeper! He's really good. I know him since I was a kid and watched GAK and Casino Salzburg! Acid, he made Inter suffer at UEFA cup, and drawn them to a penalty-shootout. He's Austrian best player ever since Toni Polster and Michael Konsel.


Hey Alberto, didn't see you for quite some time! Hope you bring us luck!

Prediction: Milan 2 - Juventus 1
Like Joker said, if you gotta go, go with a smile

every one knows about the situation, too many injuries

of course, every game we look for 3 points

I wish that
Jankulovski and Flamini will give their best, and do some good infiltrations
Inziaghi and Pato this seazon are not in form, hope that sunday is their day
Ronaldinho is good, he will try to give his best, to score since everyone is looking at the derby
Kaka' will try again to coordinate everything
sorry for Gattuso, he is like 3 players, when you don't have Gattuso, it's like playing with 8players

go ACM go

i don't want to know, who, how,
i want 3 points from Olimplco

heh...me too

This season every time we've played without Gattusso we've done badly. I think a win looks difficult.

Miz, yes Juventuz was one of the forums I looked at. I also looked at a couple of Italian language forums. The Juventuz guys really are venomous toward Milan, but I think they hate the cugini more. For what it's worth, there are comments in that forum about both Seedorf and Pippo to the effect that they think those two score goals for fun against Juve.

As for Manninger, they concded fewer goals with him in goal than they did with Buffon in goal (though to be fair, Chiellini was out for a good bit of the time Buffon was playing). I think Manninger is doing a pretty good job so far.

Tough but with Bonera out, and I'm not sure if Maldini is playing again so soon...nonetheless...

What I'd like...

---Zambrotta----Kaladze-----Maldini----Janku
--------------Flamini----Ambro-------------
-----------------------------------Zee---------
-----------------Kaka--------------------------
--------------Sheva------------Pippo----------


Ok, maybe I'm a little nostalgic about seeing Sheva-Pippo-Kaka again but...

But I would expect the stock 4-3-2-1 (with R80 Kaka and Zee) with Pippo/Sheva playing sole striker.

rino is out for the rest of the season !!

(crossposted from the Gattuso thread)




[AC Milan announces that the player Gennaro Gattuso, injured during the Milan-Catania game, had an MRI done today. The scan showed a lesion to the anterior cruciat ligament of his left knee. Gattuso, accompanied by Dr. Meersseman, will go to Anvers Belgium tomorrow to consult with Professor Martens.]

There goes the guy who's been our best player so far this season.


Not sure it's the rest of the season but ligament tears are usually Bad News.

When I saw him twist his knee at the weekend, it looked pretty bad. I was surprised that he got up and played on.

But yeah, knee ligaments are nasty - 2 months at least I reckon.

Now we are left with a fat @ss called Emerson...

He wants to look like he cares and that he is fighting, but just turn off the volume and look at him in a game... Almost 60-70% of the time he is walking around... Barely managing to keep up with the team, let alone running the midfield... I don't care if some people here hate him... I don't. But judging from what I have witnessed so far from him, he is a lost cause on the pitch. Even Pippo runs and tries four times as hard compared to him.

NOOOOOO!!!!!!

We need Ambro back ASAP. I hope he's shaken off whatever injury he had because we can't just have Emerson and Flamini if Pirlo remains injured. I'm fearing a lot more Emerson on the horizon for us, now this piece of ***** is making me wish we kept Brocchi and got rid of him, atleast Brocchi ran and tried, even if he's didn't deliver any quality, this guy doesn't even run or try...

Something batter not happen to Flamini or we are done for

pirlo in rino out it seems

When one thinks of Juve - Milan matches what comes to mind?

For me first is the CL win in 03 and second is this Sheva goal

Oh, so NOW he becomes important.

i think it would be like rino out pirlo in

Personally? A blizzard in Cracow, some hot coffee + brandy, really good sernik wiedenski, and an absolutely killer goal by (I'm pretty sure it was) Marco Van Basten. March 24, 1991.

(see what you get when you ask an old person questions like this, han?)

I don't know why but Juve-Milan [and vice versa] usually turns out a boring encounter... hope this time it will be different.

if milan win then i wouldnt care how boring it was

Ligament tears take quite a bit of hard work in rehabbing, especially the ACL, which can be a career killer. If it tore completely, he's definitely out for the rest of the season, but that doesn't seem to be the case according to acmilan.com. I wouldn't be surprised if he was absent until February or even March, depending on the severity of the injury. On a side note, grafts are usually needed to repair fully-severed ligaments.


Nice.

Whenever I think of Juve nowadays, I think not of the '03 CL but the 3-1 home thrashing in October 2005. Granted, Chimenti was in goal (Buff was out injured and I think Abi had refused to play), but it's always satisfying to look back on that. Remember how Mutu tried to stomp on Nesta and half the team nearly cleaned his clock as a result?

blizzards are fun when you include those things, not when your driving in them (almost got into an accident today)

Even a partial tear will keep him out till mid-March at the latest. The rehab process is shorter because muscle wastage doesn't occur as greatly as with a full rupture.

That is my fondest memory too, equally i think of the 1-0 loss at the San Siro the season before which cost us the scudetto

I hadn't even started primary school then..

Were you even out of diapers then, Kurt?

And yes, habitant, blizzards are fun if you're INSIDE during them, which I thankfully was, and in a nice old hotel too. Glad you're okay -- driving in bad snow sucks. (I grew up in the rockies, ahve dealt with it).

I don't remember, though I would have thought so!

Okay. But all this takes nothing away from the fact that he's got a weird hairstyle.

It's the new Austrian look..
Well, compared to the hairstyles of some Austrian players...Alex has a good one.