Remember it's our 'Champions League'.

I wonder how Pippo will treat this game... Something tells me he'll play the back ups for this CL fixture

Well, it's a simple motivational phrase. I wouldn't understand it literary.

The Champions League music will hype the boys up. San Siro will be full for this night of big occasions. Many important personalities are expected to be present at the stadium, like Kobe Bryant, David Beckham and the Dalai Lama. The fans have prepared a breathtaking choreography. Sassuolo is expected to field all its best players, including Ronaldo, Messi and Pelé. It's going to be a memorable night, can't frigging wait!

This one doesn't appear to be live on UK TV alas.

It's on Rai 2, should be easy to find a stream

Oh yeah streams are never a problem to find, just would rather have it in HD. And not buffering. And in English.

Lineups anyone?

Nevermind. Probable lineup will be:

Abbiati; Abate-Zapata-Alex-MDS; de Jong-Poli-Bonaventura; Cerci-SES-Pazzini

Ironic that this is better balanced than the one he used against Toro in a much more important fixture

I really like the dynamic of having Cerci and SES on either side of a proper striker

Works much better than the mess we've seen in attack in the last few games.

Hopefully this will make Pippo see reason and he'll drop the false 9 BS

And play whom, exactly? Pazzini?

That's why we need Destro, Han.

Yep, I'd rather make do with Pazzo for now and buy someone really good in the summer for the 20m we would be wasting on Destro.

The season is p!ssed away anyway, so why bother with bringing in someone to tape over the crack now?

Why bring in Bonera now to f@ck everything up?

The season is not pissed away, we're still only 5 points away from 3rd place. If we sign Destro and a quality CM (Witsel) we can score for that 3rd spot.



De Sciglio got injured, I think.

The problem with Destro is that Roma want a lot more than he's actually worth. Paying 20m for him when imo he's a gamble is just not smart

On the other hand; Cerci, SES and Abate are really working their asses off on those wings and Pzzo is reaping the benefits of it. Could have had another

An OK performance punctuated by two clinical goals. Good team selection tonight, was much happier with every area of the pitch. Ultimate display was ok, but Bonera's arrival ruined the defence, unsurprisingly.

Abbiati: 5 Had absolutely nothing to do all match beyond the penalty.

Abate: 7 Tracked forward and back so much better than Rami or De Sciglio in the previous two matches. Massive upgrade.

Alex: 6 Solid enough, not spectacular, but decent.

Zapata: 4 Had a night to forget. Dreadful, but then, in and out of the side, it's not that surprising that his form is as consistent as Pippo's selections.

MDS: 6 Bit better than the last one, kept his shape better and wasn't as exposed.

De Jong: 7 A lot better, and the winning goal. Can't ask much more.

Bona: 6 Contributed his work ethic deeper and it showed as the midfield didn't get quite as swamped as usual.

Poli: 6 He helped Bona in front of him and the defence too. Plus huge assist for the goal.

SES: 3 Crap. Acceptable that he was selected for this one to rest others, but he's just absolutely fucking terrible now.

Pazzo: 6 A little like the old Pazzo - and took his goal really well.

Cerci: 8 I'll be generous and give him MOTM. He was bright, alert, worked hard, quick, and was a constant threat. He was only denied a goal by the post.

Pippo: 6 Apart from that weird sub of Monto for Cerci when it was 1-1 and that woeful sub of Bonera for MDS he got it a bit better tonight. Finally chooses a reasonable team and while it wasn't vintage Milan it was mildly better and we finally beat our bogey team.

Agree SES works hard, he just has absolutely no ability or confidence with which to do anything with it.

One small note for the beginning. This wasn't a 1/4 final match, this was the last 16 round (thread is marked as quarter finals).

Danny, I disagree on some of the ratings.

Abbiati had some saves to do and also showed good positioning. My rating would be 6.5. Alex made some unnecessary errors, but okay, I guess 6 is fair.

But Poli was more then good, contributed and mixed up with the attack more then once. SES surely wasn't "crap", he started rather well, faded a bit but came back afterwards. He was dynamic and dangerous. Cerci and SES looked dangerous together.

I'd also like to praise Bonera, this was one of his good day appearances. Solid back in defense and made the superb pass to Poli which ended up with de Jong scoring the winner.

Btw. this is like the 3rd or even 4th (?) consecutive time we score early and then concede. Something must be done with the mentality, we clearly start fading after we take the lead and loose concentration.

Bonera was diabolical IMO. Our defence was exposed time and time again after he came on.

The fact that you gave Cerci an 8 and SES a 3 and said he's crap in your ratings says it all. You're just completely biased in your dislike for him.

As you may know I'm not Cerci's biggest fan (understatement), and wasn't all that happy with his signing, but I can admit that he was good yesterday, was dangerous, made the assist and was a very good outlet on the wing.

SES did very similar work on the left side, he created multiple dangerous situations by dribbling past 2 or 3 players at times and shooting or cutting the ball in, he didn't get the assist but he was the one who created the move that resulted in Cerci hitting the post.

All of that and he works his @ss off to track back and help out his FB.

I don't know what your problem is with him, but the fact that you can't even admit that he's had a good game when he's so obviously had one says it all imo.

Agreed. Same goes out for Bonera. I checked various Italian newspaper ratings, all of them agreeing that Bonera was either solid or even one of the better players. Yet somehow he was "diabolical".

I thought Bonera was okay, didn't do anything wrong wasn't spectacular either, he put in a decent shift

Ahem.

That's what they call appeal to authority. Think for yourself instead of taking other people's opinions to approve your own.

Really? The Real game? All of your praises were followed by thinly veined criticism and snubs that he only does it in friendlies and it was only a friendly etc, etc.

The thing is, he played a good game yesterday, and you gave him a 3 and called his performance cr@p, when it was anything but

What?? Interesting how you tried to turn this one. But anyway, let's move on

Should I have included cup games? He's just not good in Serie A. Whether we agree on his display or not, end of the day doing it in cup and friendly is just not good enough.

No problem

You're splitting hairs here.

We played this very same team 2 weeks ago, and aside from a couple of players (just like us) they were using the same team that they used those 2 weeks ago.

But unlike the Serie A game we had a more balance midfield and attack. That in and of itself helps our attackers more. SES didn't play against Toro and our attack was just as abysmal as it was the previous week against Sassuolo. SES and our other attackers might not be in the best form but that is compounded on by the system that Pippo uses

Against Sassuolo we saw how a 4-3-3 should be properly deployed, i.e. a real striker and 2 wingers on either side of him,. I still maintain that SES is not a winger, but he has certain qualities that make him still fit into that role, just not always successfully as he's more a striker than a winger imo

Against Sassuolo we were better balanced, and it showed in how our players combined with each other. And that makes a major difference in how the players perform individually as well.

For anyone not keeping track with what's happening in the other fixtures, we're playing Lazio at home on the 27th of this month