Roma – Milan Preview
Roma manager, Rudi Garcia received a two-match ban after Genoa-Roma because of the accusation of physical violence exposed by a steward at the Marassi stadium. The manager is furious and has declared that he will fight to have his name cleared as he denies all accusations, claiming they totally unfounded. The players however, are trying to stay fully focused on their next match against Milan as Ivorian striker Gervinho declared to Sky Italia: “We are totally concentrated on our next match against Milan and what happened to our manager will not affect us in any way. We know that we want to win the League and take part in next season’s Champions League and we will do all that is necessary to achieve this. We have to just concentrate on winning all our matches and let other things take their course. We our conscious of our strengths and we don’t like to be compared to other serie A teams like Juventus, Napoli or Milan because each one of them has their own individual qualities too.” He went on to say that: “When our manager declared we would win the Serie A title this year, he did so in order to motivate us even more and I think it has worked.” Gervinho will be a member of the starting 11 set to face the Rossoneri on Saturday night as will the eternal captain Totti, alongside them the manager will have to choose between Ljajic or Iturbe. In defence Brazilian Maicon is set to return alongside Manolas, Yanga Mbiwa and either Torosidis or Ashley Cole on the left.
Our probable formation (baring last minute injuries) is a 4-3-3 with: De Sanctis, Torosidis, Yanga Mbiwa, Manolas, Maicon, Keita, De Rossi, Nainggolan, Gervinho, Totti and Ljajic.
Milan, on the other hand, have had a very positive few days after their convincing win over Champions League rivals Napoli. The manager Pippo Inzaghi has been trying to play the enthusiasm down and said: “With Napoli we made a step in the right direction, but we must not let ourselves get carried away as it only represents three more points that will help us grow. We were missing a win against a “Big” club this season, and now we have it but we must not get carried away, like I said before. We hope to play another good match against the Giallorossi that will earn us a good result on Saturday.” Roma are one of the favourites for the Title but they also showed their worth in Europe too Inzaghi believes, “It will not be an easy match for us, but if we want to return to being a force of the Serie A we must do well in matches like this one. It seems a little obvious, but we will need the perfect match.” Milan’s recent success has very much been linked to the resurgence of ex Roma player Menez and Inzaghi went on to say: “I’m not sure how he was when he left Roma, but now he is a very mature player. He is proving that he has it all to one day become the leader of this squad. I am glad to say that I now have the difficult choice of who I should select to play up front, as with El Shaarawy I have a brilliant rapport and Torres has just returned to training but he should be available for selection on Saturday.”
Our probable formation (baring injury) is a 4-3-3 with: Diego Lopez, Armero, Mexes, Zapata, Bonera, Montolivo, De Jong, Poli, Bonaventura, Menez and Honda