AC Milan vs. Roma: Team News, Predicted Lineups, Live Stream & TV Info
Two teams that have slogged through disappointing seasons will meet each other at the San Siro on Saturday, but only one will have something to play for.
Date: Saturday, May 9
Time: 8:45 local time, 7:45 BST, 2:45 EDT
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Venue: San Siro, Milan, Italy
TV Info: BT Sport 1 (UK), beIN Sports (US)
Live Stream: beIN Sports Connect (US)
Preamble
The 2014-15 season was not supposed to be like this for AC Milan. No one was expecting a title run, but the team was expected to at least put up a reasonable fight for a place in the Europa League. Instead, everything has fallen apart.
The Filippo Inzaghi experiment has not panned out. The former striker is in his first job as a manager, but it's one thing to make your first mistakes as a manager at Avellino and an entirely different one to make them at Milan. His team selection and substitution strategy have been mystifying at times.
But Pippo is not the lone culprit here. Milan's management, particularly in the transfer window, has been terrible. The club has made do with cut-rate veterans while letting promising young players fall by the wayside. The players themselves also bear a large part of the blame. As the season went south, so did their attitude, and for the last few weeks, they have looked like a team that has absolutely given up.
Roma has likewise disappointed. The Giallorossi were coming off the best season in their history. The only thing that kept them from the Scudetto was the fact that Juventus set a European record for points in a season.
After the turmoil of manager Antonio Conte's departure from Juve in the summer, it was expected that Roma would be able to take advantage of the situation and dethrone the champions.
Throughout the first half of the season, Roma kept close to Juve, but after their controversial meeting in Turin in October, the team started to slip. Roma's biggest hurdle has always been between their ears, and the jarring effect of the loss at the Juventus Stadium had an obvious effect. Juve presented them several opportunities to ramp up the pressure before the winter break, but they dropped points instead.
When play started again after the winter break, Roma was afflicted with draw-itis, allowing both Juve to pull ahead and the teams behind them to catch up. Now they're fighting to keep their Champions League place—not the place they wanted to be in with four games left in the season.
These teams met each other in the last round before the winter break and played out a scoreless draw at the Stadio Olimpico. Milan played the last 20 minutes with 10 men after Pablo Armero was sent off for a second bookable offense.
Form Lines
| Milan | Roma |
| L 3-0 @ Napoli | W 2-0 vs. Genoa |
| L 3-1 vs. Genoa | W 3-0 @ Sassuolo |
| L 2-1 @ Udinese | L 2-1 @ Inter |
| D 0-0 @ Inter | D 1-1 vs. Atalanta |
| W 2-1 @ Palermo | D 1-1 @ Torino |
Predicted Formations
| Milan | Roma | |
| Diego Lopez | De Sanctis | |
| Antonelli Alex Mexes Abate | Holebas Manolas Astori Florenzi | |
| Poli De Jong Bonaventura | Nainggolan De Rossi Pjanic | |
| Honda Destro Suso | Gervinho Doumbia Ibarbo |
Players to Watch
Few players have distinguished themselves this year for Milan, but one man who has never stopped working is Giacomo Bonaventura.
Bonaventura arrived at San Siro this year from Atalanta and has never stopped working hard. Naturally an attacking midfielder, he's played all over the field for manager Filippo Inzaghi. He has been a tireless runner in midfield and has also manned both wing spots. He deserves praise for continuing to fight for his shirt while much of the rest of the team has given up on the season.
The Giallorossi have occasional lapses in the back—particularly against teams they should beat. As incredible it is to say, Milan is, at least now, one of those teams. But a hard worker like Bonaventura can find a way through this defense if determined. If he continues to play as hard as he does, he could give the Rossoneri some surprise points.
The away side will look to take advantage of a disastrous Milan defense, and the man to get them through is Miralem Pjanic.
The Bosnian international has had another good season in a Roma shirt and is attracting attention from everywhere. In February, the British Daily Mirror (h/t the Express) reported that Liverpool was ready to table a large-scale offer for the player, whom they reportedly see as a replacement for departing captain Steven Gerrard.
On Saturday, though, Pjanic's focus should be solely on Roma and getting his passes through Milan's porous back line. Given the problems the Rossoneri had in stopping midfield runners last week against Napoli, he may even be in for a goal if the opportunity comes.
Key Matchup
Milan has scored only twice in their last four games. They need offense badly, and with leading scorer Jeremy Menez serving a suspension, they will need Mattia Destro to finally step up. This could be the week for him to do it—playing against one's former team is always a shot in the arm.
Destro has had difficulty settling in since his January arrival. Inzaghi rarely lets him play the full 90 minutes, and his frustration was clear after he was subbed off against Napoli. To be fair, most of the service he's gotten has been abysmal, but the mark of a top striker is the ability to take bad service and turn it into chances. It's why Mario Balotelli has yet to become truly elite, and Destro suffers a similar predicament.
He will go up against the likely defensive pairing of Kostas Manolas and Davide Astori. Each has played well this season but has been prone to the occasional error, as well. If Destro can be enough of a pest, he might be able to force a mistake and get Milan's nose in front. If he does, all bets could be off—Roma still harbours some of the mental weaknesses that hold them back from being truly great, and they're prone to crumbling if they give up a soft goal.
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