MILANELLO – Sinisa Mihajlovic has named a 23-man squad for Saturday’s match away at Roma:
Abbiati, Donnarumma, Livieri; Abate, Antonelli, Calabria, De Sciglio, Ely, Mexes, Romagnoli, Zapata; Bertolacci, Bonaventura, De Jong, Mauri, Kucka, Montolivo, Poli; Bacca, Boateng, Honda, Luiz Adriano, Niang.
Weah, Beckham, Shevchenko and more have all left their mark in Roma-Milan.
Over the years, Milan’s march towards the Scudetto has passed through a trip to the Italian capital to face Roma, starting with the 2-0 win in April 1988, which kept Milan on course for Scudetto number 11 and the first with Silvio Berlusconi as President.
Six years later, and in February 1994, a 2-0 win away to Roma helped Milan wipe out the disappointment of the European Super Cup defeat at the hands of Parma and launch the Rossoneri towards their 14th Scudetto.
A year later, and in September 1995, there was the 2-1 victory for Milan with Weah bursting onto the scene, not to mention Sheva’s brace for a 2-1 win in 2004 and the goalless stalemate on May 7, 2011 which clinched Scudetto number 18 for Milan.
In the past five meetings between the two teams at the Olimpico, there have been two wins for the home side (2012, 2014), two draws (2011, 2014) and 1 win for Milan (2011) while so far this season, the Rossoneri have collected maximum points against the clubs from the Lazio region: Lazio-Milan 1-3 and Frosinone-Milan 2-4.
Other memorable moments include Roma-Milan 0-1, the Rossoneri’s first match of 1993, which started off on the wrong foot, losing Baresi after just 6 minutes of play through a sending-off. However, and despite the numerical disadvantage, the Rossoneri dug deep to conquer the capital 1-0 thanks to Ruud Gullit’s fierce and precise strike that left Cervone well and truly beaten while a more recent memory is David Beckham’s positive debut with the Milan jersey in a 2-2 draw in January 2009.
A preview of Roma-Milan with the help of Football Data.
The capital club welcome Milan on a 4 match unbeaten run in Serie A which consists of 3 draws and 1 win. The last time Roma tasted defeat in Serie A was on November 29 when Atalanta conquered the capital thanks to a 2-0 victory. Should the Giallorossi collect another positive result on Saturday, they would equal their longest unbeaten streak for the season, five, which was set from round 6 through to round 10.
What’s more, Milan’s back-line will have to ensure they are on their toes right from the first whistle on Saturday because the Roman attack have scored the most goals this season in the opening 15 minutes, firing in 7 goals, which is a record they share with Fiorentina.
The Giallorossi also like to share around the goals and lead the way with 13 different scorers so far this season. Milan aren’t far behind though with 11 different players finding the back of the net this season.
Roma’s scorers this season are: De Rossi, Digne, Dzeko, Florenzi, Gervinho, Iago Falque, Iturbe, Maicon, Manolas, Pjanic, Sadiq, Salah and Totti. The Milan men to have opened their accounts for the season meanwhile are: Abate, Alex, Antonelli, Bacca, Balotelli, Bertolacci, Bonaventura, Luiz Adriano, Mexes, Niang and Zapata.
Finally, and whatever the outcome in Rome, the Rossoneri will close out the first part of the season with their highest points total in 3 years. Milan make their way to the Italian capital currently on 28 points, 2 more than at the half-way stage last season, and 6 more than the 2013/14 season.
SOURCE: Football Data.
MILANELLO – Jeremy Menez was involved in the first part of today’s training session at Milanello. Click here to read more and to find out what the rest of the squad did ahead of tomorrow’s match versus Roma at the Olimpico.
MILAN – Tomorrow’s match between Roma and Milan will mark the fifth time that Sinisa Mihajlovic takes on Rudi Garcia as coach. From the previous 4 meetings, Garcia has the upper hand, winning 2, while there has been 1 win for Mihajlovic and 1 draw.
Garcia has faced Milan four times as a coach and his record reads 1 win, 1 defeat and 2 draws. As for Sinisa Mihajlovic, he has taken on the capital club 11 times during his coaching career with just 1 win (2-0, March 16, in charge of Sampdoria), 3 draws and 7 defeats.
Finally, a match against Roma will always have a special meaning to Mihajlovic. The Serb made his debut as a player in Italian football with the Giallorossi jersey in the 1992/1993 season while his coaching career started in charge of Bologna against the capital club. The date of that match was November 8, 2008 and ended 1-1.
SOURCE: Football Data.