Serie A: Milan must adapt to Gattuso loss at Juve

godtabh

Preview

AC Milan must start adapting to the loss of Gennaro Gattuso's stirring midfield presence when they visit Serie A title rivals Juventus in Turin on Sunday (1930 GMT).

The Italy international will have surgery next week after damaging knee ligaments in last Sunday's 1-0 win over Catania and risks missing the rest of the season.

"This injury was a big surprise for us. On Sunday he finished the game and he was fundamentally important for us, as always," forward Andriy Shevchenko told the club's in-house TV channel. "He is a leader for us. We'll miss him a lot."

In theory, Milan have plenty of back-up in Emerson, Mathieu Flamini and Massimo Ambrosini.

Although Emerson and Flamini are good readers of the game, they lack Gattuso's dynamism and ability to cover so much ground in 90 minutes.

Ambrosini is the most natural stand-in.

But coach Carlo Ancelotti regularly fields them both in his starting lineup, with Gattuso operating predominantly across the width of the pitch to plug gaps and Ambrosini going forward more to pressure opponents in possession and support attacks.

Gattuso's loss will inevitably cause tactical changes, although he would not have been able to play this weekend anyway because of suspension.

The omens for Milan are not great as the player was missing in the three defeats they have suffered so far in Serie A.

Ambrosini has had injury problems of his own and has missed several recent matches. He is expected to be available on Sunday though, as he was able to train with his team mates on Wednesday.

Fellow midfielder Andrea Pirlo and forward Ronaldinho are tipped to come back too after missing the Catania game with fitness problems, but Clarence Seedorf remains an injury doubt.

Juventus captain Alessandro Del Piero is set to return to the starting lineup after missing Sunday's 2-1 win at Lecce with a muscle strain. Del Piero came on in the second half of Wednesday's goalless draw with BATE Borisov in the Champions League.

Italy midfielder Mauro Camoranesi should be able to return too despite a shoulder knock, coach Claudio Ranieri said following the BATE game, but defender Nicola Legrottaglie is suspended.

Champions Inter Milan, who have a six-point lead over joint-second Milan and Juve, will look to make ground on at least one of their rivals by collecting their seventh consecutive league win at home to bottom side Chievo Verona earlier on Sunday (1400).

Saturday, December 13, 2008
Time Home Away VENUE
17:00 UK Bologna v Torino Renato Dall'Ara
19:30 UK Napoli v Lecce San Paolo
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Time Home Away VENUE
14:00 UK Fiorentina v Catania Artemio Franchi
14:00 UK Genoa v Atalanta Comunale Luigi Ferraris
14:00 UK Internazionale v Chievo Verona Giuseppe Meazza
14:00 UK Palermo v Siena Renzo Barbera
14:00 UK Reggina v Sampdoria Stadio Oreste Granillo
14:00 UK AS Roma v Cagliari Olimpico
14:00 UK Udinese v Lazio Friuli
19:30 UK Juventus v AC Milan Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino

I'm off to Inter -V- Chievo and will then be watching Milan Juventus in a Milan bar with my Milan supporter friend in my Inter gear. Sunday evening should be fun

godtabh

Good game. Some cracking goals. Some school boy defending but I'm leaving a haapy Inter fan

Bubs101

Had bets on the Roma, Inter and Fiorentina matches and I was a nervous wreck. Fiorentina scored literally the exact same time Cagliari got one in

Mr. Presentable

Edge of the seat stuff for both the Rome sides. Roma winning in the 90th and Lazio coming back from 3-0 to draw.

Have a great evening kearnsr. Dead jealous here

Trippie

For any of the degenerates out there Pato is 17/2 on bet365 to score the first goal and inzaghi is also 17/2 to score the last goal.

Seaneh

Milan to win 2-0 with the the players boosted by the immenent arrival of reigining Brazilian player of the year Thaigo Silva.

Feck yeah!

leninbenjamin

just noticed something from that article

Although Emerson and Flamini are good readers of the game, they lack Gattuso's dynamism and ability to cover so much ground in 90 minutes.

Flamini lacks dynamism now? did they watch him play for Arsenal at all last season? at times he looked like Gattuso on steroids with the amount of ground he covered and pressurising he did.

Mr. Presentable

Flamini, along with Gattuso and Kaka, is out of tonights game. Emerson and Seedorf will start in midfield.

Seaneh

Midfeild of Emerson, Seedorf and Ambrosini is fairly decent with Pato, Ronaldinho and Boriello up front if you ask me.

Trippie

Seaneh wrote: »

Midfeild of Emerson, Seedorf and Ambrosini is fairly decent with Pato, Ronaldinho and Boriello up front if you ask me.

no chance of borriello playing

Seaneh

Infariness if Pirlo wasnt starting (which I didnt hink he would as he's been injured) Boriello would have started with pato and roanldinho just behind.
Actually, He wouldnt have, eh's not even in the travling party.

Official line ups.

Milan
Abbiati; Zambrotta, Maldini, Kaladze, Jankulovski; Ambrosini, Emerson, Pirlo; Seedorf, Ronaldinho; Pato.

Juve
Manninger; Grygera, Mellberg, Chiellini, Molinaro; Marchionni, Sissoko, Marchisio, Nedved; Del Piero

redout

AC Milan lineup:

Abbiati
Maldini
Kaladze
Zambrotta
Janjulovski
Emerson
Seedorf
Pirlo
Ambrosini
Ronaldinho
Pato


Juventus lineup:

Manninger
Chiellini
Mellberg
Grygera
Molinaro
Nedved
Marchisio
Sissoko
Marchionni
Del Piero
Amauri

Some big names missing which is a bit of a shame.

Buffon
Trezeguet
Kaka
Gattuso
Camoranesi
Nesta

pickarooney

Juve squad is in tatters. Theoretically should be a win for Milan, but with the snow and the big-match jitters there's hope for the Oul Wan.

redout

Penalty for Juve.

Goal.............

Del Piero from 12 yards.

1 - 0 Juve.

Equaliser from Pato. Good work from Ronaldinho.

1 - 1

Goal.............

Milan drew level for only 2 mins. Chiellini with a header to restore the lead for Juve.

2 - 1

Goal................

Amauri with another Juve header.

3 - 1 Juve.

Goal...........

3 - 2

Ambrosini pulls one back for Milan.

Goal.........

Amauri with his second. Game over now Me thinks.

4 - 2 Juve

Seaneh

1-1 Pato after a great bit of play!

Seaneh

pickarooney

Ack! Nedved gone.
Hoping OM can put another one over on OM in the other big 'big-two' match this weekend. They could potentially leap-frog into top spot.

pickarooney

G'wan the Chiellini!

Seaneh

-

pickarooney

Looking decidedly less ropey now! Nice to see the aerial threat hasn't disappeared with 13&guet.

Trippie

Fcuking Juventus to say the least

PHB

Seaneh wrote: »

-

That's an hilarious way to symbolise scores

redout

What station is this on in Ireland ? Setanta maybe.

Seaneh

bet365.com

Seaneh

:(:( - :)

Seaneh

Zambro off, thats the end of that.

Seaneh

:(:(:( - :)

Samurai

pretty crap that with all the blooming channels on sky you still cant get italian football :-(

redout

Samurai wrote: »

pretty crap that with all the blooming channels on sky you still cant get italian football :-(

I am watching on Canal+ Futbol in Spain. If you know anything about satellites you could re-align yours and try pick it up.


http://www.lyngsat.com/packages/europe.html

eZe^

Gotta love the Old Lady...

Seaneh

I hate you!

pickarooney

Eeeeexcellent. Inter will love that too, though, the gits.

Nalz

Juventus 4-2 Milan
Del Piero 15p Alexandre Pato 31
Chiellini 34 Ambrosini 56
Amauri 41, 69

Jaysus must have been some game

godtabh

It was a class weekend. I'll try and post some photos and about the match later if I've time

Quint

You were at the game? Lucky bastard! What was the stadium like? What's the process of getting tickets? I'll be in Turin early next year and want to get some, heard you have to wait till the week of the game. I'll be going to the Lecce game, should be easy to get tickets for that

redout

All Serie A games are easy to get tickets for unless it is something like the Milan Derby.

godtabh

Quint wrote: »

You were at the game? Lucky bastard! What was the stadium like? What's the process of getting tickets? I'll be in Turin early next year and want to get some, heard you have to wait till the week of the game. I'll be going to the Lecce game, should be easy to get tickets for that

It was class. Juve are the biggest supported team in Italy but no one goes to the games (at least in the old stadium). I both my tickets on inter.it and collected them the day of the game.

If you are going to any one in the top 4 unless you are a season ticket holder you will pay top money. I think I paid about €150 for a milan derby ticket a couple of years ago.

redout wrote: »

All Serie A games are easy to get tickets for unless it is something like the Milan Derby.

There was signs up on sunday saying the game was sold out but there was 50000 people there (I dont belive that number)

godtabh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsd9lnbMg1I

Team being annonced