Italian Serie A preview: UC Sampdoria – AC Milan
Adapting to life without Talentino
Owing much to Riccardo Garrone’s adamancy, Sampdoria are still without the inspirational Antonio Cassano. In his absence the club has clearly struggled and prior to Blucerchiati’s 3 – 2 win against low lying Lecce, the club had gone four
competitive games without scoring.
Italian International Giampaolo Pazzini netted a superb hat trick against 10 men Lupi as Sampdoria moved to eighth place in the league. As things stand, Il Doria have 19 points from 13 games, just a single point behind Inter who are placed
sixth. Should other league results go in their favour; a victory tonight will propel Sampdoria to fifth in the League.
Doria don’t have a particularly impressive record at home – Doria are a 17th ranked team judging on home form. In the six games that the club has played at Marassi, Doria while having recorded a measly two victories
and three draws. With the club locking with league leaders AC Milan tonight, such woeful form will not be confidence boost in any sense. However, should the club manage to steal the three points, their Cassano dependency debates will be put to rest, at least
for a while.
Red hot Rossoneri
Massimiliano Allegri’s side are rampant in the league with club recording eight victories from their last nine league games. Last weekend, Rossoneri recorded a resilient 1 – 0 victory over Florence based Viola to extend their lead at the top to three points.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic was the difference between the two sides, as has been the case so often this season.
Davioli have accumulated 29 points from opening 13 games in Serie A and even a defeat tonight will not harm their league standings. Much to the delight of Adriano Galliani; AC Milan CEO, Rossoneri were able to keep the momentum going in
the Champions League as the club recorded an impressive 2 – 0 victory over Auxerre away from home. No prizes for guessing as Zlatan Ibrahimovic was on the score sheet yet again.
To make things even better, unlike recent times, Rossoneri defence has looked rather impressive of late. With such imperious form backing Massimiliano Allegri, Rossoneri will be confident of at least fighting out a draw.
Team News
UC Sampdoria
Luciano Zauri, Franco Semioli, Angelo Palombo, Marco Padalino and Pedro Obiang are unavailable for selection because of their injuries. Domenico De Carlo will start Giampaolo Pazzini and Nicola Pozzi in his favourite 4-4-2 formation.
AC Milan
Milan will have to do without the services of Alexandre Pato, Pippo Inzaghi, Massimo Oddo, Andrea Pirlo and wingback Luca Antonini for this game as the aforementioned players are out injured. Inzaghi in particular won’t be available for
the rest of the season.
Key Players
Giampaolo Pazzini
The talented Italian has finally gotten used to life without his friend Antonio Cassano. Pazo struggled miserably in Talentino‘s absence but his hat-trick against Lecce suggests he has finally taken it up on himself. Should the bomber
play one of his great games tonight, Blucerchiati have every chance of taking three points home.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
The lanky Swede has completely rejuvenated a slow and predictable Rossoneri attack with his presence and has scored 11 goals in all competitions. The forward has scored in his last four outings in all competitions and Massimiliano Allegri
will be expecting more of the same from his talisman.
Prediction
Stadio Luigi Ferraris will provide a spectacle for the followers of the beautiful game as the two sides will play an entertaining game full of end-to-end action. Milan are in imperious form and Doria are hungry to make up for lost points.
However it should be the former who will bag the three points as Rossoneri have a superior squad. In the end it is predicted that AC Milan will win this game by a narrow 2 – 1 score line.
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