AC Milan face Inter in the second leg of our Coppa Italia semi-final clash, and Sergio Conceicao has named his starting line-up.
The tie is finely poised after the city rivals couldn’t be split in the first leg as it ended in a 1-1 draw.
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With the Rossoneri’s ongoing struggles in Serie A, this competition has taken on more significance as it not only might be the more realistic path to qualify for Europe, but it offers a chance of winning more silverware to salvage something from the season.
In turn, the expectation was always that Conceicao would name as strong a Milan starting XI as possible, and as per the club’s post below, the Portuguese tactician has gone with an unchanged line-up from the weekend’s defeat to Atalanta.
That’s a surprise to an extent given the poor nature of the performance and result, with many predicting that Tammy Abraham would at least come in to replace Luka Jovic and lead the Milan line.
However, Conceicao has evidently shown faith in his players and will expect a response from them, and time will tell if it’s one that’s good enough to help book our place in the final of the Coppa Italia.
It also means the 3-4-3 system will remain in place with Fikayo Tomori, Matteo Gabbia and Strahinja Pavlovic forming our back three in front of Mike Maignan between the posts, while Alex Jimenez and Theo Hernandez will operate in the wing-back positions.
Youssouf Fofana and Tijjani Reijnders continue in midfield, while Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leao will provide support on the flanks behind Jovic.
It’s a crunch encounter for Milan with the way our season is going, and it’s hoped that this XI can show much more than they did on Sunday night.