Week 37: Milan – Cagliari
Milan conquered the city of Turin. After beating a mediocre Juventus 3-0 the task was completed by demolishing Torino 7-0. The result was one of Milan’s biggest ever and took the team a giant step towards Champions League participation. A win versus Cagliari in this week 37 match will all but confirm the top 4 finish. By beating Cagliari only a complicated scenario can see Milan finishing 5th and it involves a four way tie between Milan, Juventus, Atalanta and Napoli.
For now however Milan have to just continue their recent form and get 3 points from a team that has just confirmed its Serie A survival on the same day of this match. Benevento’s tie with Crotone has assured Cagliari’s Serie A spot for the 2021-2022 season.
Milan are missing Ibra who not only misses the rest of the season but the Euros as well. The Swede’s return to his national team has been short lived. The rest of the squad is relatively healthy. The line up is set to be the same as the 7-0 win but with the return of Saelemaekers from suspension he should reclaim his spot from Castillejo. Calabria, a player of the season candidate, will line up in front of Donnarumma with Kjaer and Tomori. Romagnoli is set to remain on the bench and perhaps get a game next week if there is less to play for. Hernandez showed flashes of his old form in the last week and will of course be the left back. Kessie and Bennacer have not been at their best but have done well. The ever present former must be battling fatigue and the latter has been somewhat slow in regaining his old form. Using Diaz as a central attacking midfielder and pushing Calhanoglu left has worked very well in the past week and despite reservations based on earlier performances Pioli deserves a lot of credit for using it to good effect again. The Spaniard has scored twice in 2 games and the talk has now reached a point where Milan will attempt to keep Diaz for next season and perhaps beyond. Rebic scored a second half hat trick at Torino and will start again.
The aforementioned now safe Cagliari are led by Joao Pedro’s 16 Serie A goals. Leonardo Semplici has revived the team since he took over in February and they haven’t lost any of their last six Serie A matches.
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