Paulo Fonseca’s tenure at Milan is at a crossroads forward of Friday’s must-win Serie A highway journey to Stadio Marc’Antonio Bentegodi to satisfy Hellas Verona. Regardless of Milan’s spectacular run within the UEFA Champions League, the Portuguese supervisor’s profession at Stadio San Siro may quickly attain a degree of no return.
Verona may add to their guests’ home woes after toppling newcomers Parma in final weekend’s five-goal thriller at Stadio Ennio Tardini to finish a four-game dropping league run. Objectives from Diego Coppola, Amin Sarr, and Daniel Mosquera impressed the Gialloblu to a goal-glutted 3-2 win in Emilia-Romagna, lifting them out of the underside three.
Extra importantly, Verona’s joint-most prolific efficiency since a 3-0 day-one triumph in opposition to Napoli threw under-pressure supervisor Paolo Zanetti one other lifeline. Nonetheless, the 42-year-old is strolling a tightrope and should tread fastidiously, as any new fiasco may show the scourge of his topsy-turvy reign in Veneto.
The identical goes for Fonseca, who’s seemingly dropping help from essential first-team stars within the dressing room. His quarrel with Theo Hernandez escalated final weekend because the ex-Roma boss left the talismanic left-back on the bench in . Fonseca couldn’t have picked a worse event to sideline the Milan famous person.
Certainly, one other uneventful efficiency was hardly an excellent solution to have a good time the membership’s a hundred and twenty fifth birthday. Milan legends within the stands had nothing noteworthy to witness besides Alvaro Morata’s unfathomable miss deep into the second half because the Rossoneri completed the final spherical 5 factors adrift of the highest six.
Match Preview
Hellas Verona
With simply two victories of their final 9 Serie A outings (L7), Verona may hardly be blamed for feeling much less optimistic about their prospects in opposition to one of many division’s elite groups. Nonetheless, they’ve proved completely able to punching above their weight.
Along with a exceptional triumph in opposition to Napoli, Verona surprised Roma 3-2 on this floor in early November. Each victories noticed Zanetti’s aspect break the impasse and discover the online past the eighty fifth minute, highlighting the potential for a late drama.
Apparently, the hosts are the only real Serie A membership and not using a single draw this season (W5, L11). Just one extra aspect from Europe’s conventional top-five leagues belongs to this class. Given the current historical past of this match-up, Verona would probably join a stalemate right here.
Milan
Since a 2-2 dwelling attract November 2020, Milan have dominated Verona in seven subsequent top-flight conferences, together with a thumping 3-1 victory on this corresponding fixture final time period. That win varieties a part of Milan’s morale-boosting five-game successful run at this stadium, with the Rossoneri bagging at the least two objectives within the earlier 4.
Delivering motion from the get-go, Milan discovered the again of the online earlier than halftime of their final 5 encounters in opposition to Verona, taking a 1-0 lead on the break on three events. They’ll probably want one other flying begin to set the tone for an all-important triumph, contemplating they will’t afford to lose extra floor on the European spots.
Nonetheless, the guests have considerably stuttered on the highway this season. For context, they’re the one staff from final season’s Serie A top-five but to smash a 10-point milestone away from dwelling (W2, D2, L3). A 2-1 defeat at Atalanta on their final league journey was Milan’s first in 5 aggressive away video games (W3, D1).
Nevertheless it was the third in a row to see Milan concede a number of objectives.
Crew Information
Along with long-term absentees Juan Cruz and Martin Frese, Verona will likely be with out ACL sufferer Abdou Harroui. Zanetti will probably depend on Mosquera to make a distinction within the last third, with solely Aston Villa’s Jhon Duran netting extra objectives instead than the Colombian ahead’s 4 this season.
Alternatively, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Tammy Abraham turned the most recent Milan stars to succumb to accidents, coming off in opposition to Genoa already within the first half. The English duo has joined Ismael Bennacer, Luka Jovic, Alessandro Florenzi, Christian Pulisic, Yunus Musah, and Noah Okafor on the therapy desk.
Hellas Verona vs Milan Potential Beginning Line-ups
Hellas Verona (3-4-2-1): Montipo; Dawidowicz, Coppola, Ghilardi; Tchatchoua, Duda, Belahyane, Lazovic; Suslov, Tengstedt; Sarr.
Milan (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Emerson, Gabbia, Thiaw, Jimenez; Fofana, Reijnders; Chukwueze, Morata, Leao; Abraham.
Hellas Verona vs Milan Prediction
Decreased to reveal bones amid a full-blown damage disaster, Milan should reveal psychological fortitude to return to the win column. Fortunately, their opposition has conceded an alarming common of almost three objectives per sport on dwelling turf, suggesting Fonseca may climate one other storm on the sheer gulf in high quality.
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