milan vs. Tottenham: promise of a great match in Italy

Nine years after his last participation, Milan will once again listen to the anthem of the Champions League in the round of 16, where he finds himself in a crisis of the game and less a few casualties, just like his rival, the English Tottenham Hotspur, without Hugo Lloris nor Rodrigo Bentancur, two indisputable headlines.

Last day’s victory over Torino has given a little rest to the team led by Italian Stefano Pioli, who had accumulated seven games in a row without winning and who reached the clash that was knocked out of the Italian Cup, with no options to win the Scudetto to lift and beat in the Super Cup final for Inter.

Without the Frenchman Mike Maignan under the sticks, without the Algerian Ismael Bennacer and without the Englishman Fikayo Tomori, all injured, Milan will try to stay on the path of victory and take refuge in the stadium factor, a Giuseppe Meazza who will be overthrown to see his team make it to the quarter-finals after eleven years without a passport.

The Portuguese Rafael Leao is the pivotal figure for the ‘Rossoneri’, although he is not experiencing his best moment, together with the Frenchman Olivier Giroud, who scored four times for the English team in his career and will add his nineteenth. confrontation against the ‘Spurs’, more than against any other team.

Stefano Pioli is expected to stick to his decision to switch to a three-centre defence, led by Dane Simon Kjaer and with Frenchman Theo Hernández clear in the left lane; with Italian Sandro Tonali at the helm in midfield and Spaniard Brahim Díaz completing the attacking trident along with Leao and Giroud.

Tottenham reach the return of the Champions League after losing two key players. The coach, Antonio Conte, who has just recovered from a gallbladder removal, will not be able to count on Hugo Lloris and Rodrigo Bentancur, two undisputed starters for the England team, neither for the first leg nor for the second leg.

The French goalkeeper suffered a knee injury and is out for six to eight weeks, while Bentancur tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee this weekend and will miss the rest of the season. This forces Conte to withdraw Fraser Forster, his replacement goalkeeper who conceded four goals against Leicester City on Saturday.

This is the tone of a Tottenham Hotspur that has not found comfortable regularity with the Italian coach and who, after disarming Manchester City a week ago, broke down against Leicester in the wee hours.

Now the Champions League is a different competition from the Premier League, in which five players out of five starting players know what it’s like to reach the final, and one of them wins it (Ivan Perisic).

With Harry Kane in form, already the top scorer in the club’s history and with 19 goals this season, Tottenham have a threat that many teams would like to have in this competition. The Englishman has, of course, only scored one goal this edition and a lot more will be asked of him now that qualifiers begin, especially with a juicy contract extension on the line (Kane only earns £10 million at Tottenham) or a future transfer to a title to win.

His easiest example to follow is in the World Cup, when he failed to score in the group stage and later scored in the round of 16 and in the quarter-finals.

In order not to remain blank for another season (they have not won a title since 2008), Tottenham entrusts everything to the Champions League or the FA Cup. The trophies are still a long way off, but it is clear that if they want to touch metal the ‘Spurs’ will have to be strong in KO tournaments.

— Probable lineups:

. Milan: Tatarsu; Kalulu, Kjaer, Thiaw; Saelemaekers, Tonali, Krunic, Theo; Brahim, Leao and Giroud.

. Tottenham: Fraser; Emerson, Dier, Davies, Romero, Perisic; Hojbjerg, Sarr; That’s them, Kulusevski and Kane.

Referee: Sandro Schcarer (SUI).