Two finals, one goal - the scenarios for Milan and everything you need to know
AC Milan claimed three crucial points away at Hellas Verona last weekend and now face Atalanta in a deciding game at San Siro. In this week’s edition, we take a look at the remainder of the season and also the latest news that has emerged in the last few days.
The scenarios…
Thanks to their hard-fought win against Hellas Verona last weekend, Milan are in a good position in the Scudetto race and the stats prove that. Of course, everything can still happen but the following is worth noting: there are 81 possible outcomes for the final two rounds and only 13 of them end with Inter winning the Scudetto.
Milan need four points from the remaining two games and that is provided that Inter win all of their remaining games. In other words, should the Nerazzurri draw against Cagliari on Sunday, then a win against Atalanta would be enough for the Rossoneri to secure the Scudetto.
It won’t be an easy clash for Stefano Pioli’s side against Atalanta, though, and a lot can still happen as already mentioned. In any case, Milan are really close to the Scudetto and it would be a shame to miss out now.
Midfield battle…
Against Verona, we saw Sandro Tonali and Franck Kessie in the midfield tandem, while Rade Krunic started in the No.10 role. Now, that tells us either two things based on the predicted line-up for the Atalanta game: 1) Bennacer wasn’t fully fit and that’s why Krunic started or 2) the Bosnian was chosen for tactical reasons.
Indeed, Bennacer is expected to play from start against Atalanta and that means Kessie will move to the No.10 role. The feeling is that the battle is still open, though, as Krunic played really well against Verona. It’s difficult to imagine that Bennacer will be benched again, but Kessie might be demoted.
Probable Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Calabria, Kalulu, Tomori, Theo; Tonali, Bennacer; Saelemaekers, Kessie, Leao; Giroud.
Pod predictions…
The lads, as they previewed the game during this week’s podcast, revealed their predictions for the game. There’s no doubt that there is great optimism among the podcast panel this week, which is understandable. The Atalanta predictions start at 30:46 in the video.
Latest news…
Investcorp and RedBird are going head-to-head for the purchase of AC Milan from Elliott Management and it’s safe to say that the situation is heating up. Recent rumours have suggested that Investcorp’s offer involves more loans, but this has now been debunked by financial journalist Carlo Festa.
On his Twitter profile, he wrote the following: “Those who know about finance also know that no offer is entirely equity and that often the equity arrives by other means, financed by banks on higher floors”. He added that Elliott simply want to get the most from the sale, given the high figures Chelsea sold for, thus putting Investcorp and RedBird against each other.
In other news, Milan are expected to redeem Alessandro Florenzi at the end of the season for a fee of €4.5m. This was reported by Calciomercato.com who also stated that Maldini, Massara and Pioli are on the same page regarding this. The former two will try to get a discount from Roma, though, as you would expect.
Final words…
Hopefully, we will have what could be a very important win to recap in next week’s edition but, until then, Forza Milan!