CorSport: Leao and Dortmund underpin Pioli’s hopes for a Milan miracle | OneFootball

AC Milan will find out tomorrow night if they can pull off a miracle and stay in the Champions League, if they will drop into the Europa League or crash out of Europe altogether.

Against Newcastle United on Wednesday night the final game of Group F of the 2023-24 Champions League group stage will be played, and the first verdict of Milan’s season will arrive. Their chances of going through are slim, but not zero.

Corriere dello Sport (via PianetaMilan) points out that itwon’t be enough for Milan to win at Newcastle. They will also have to hope that Borussia Dortmund beat PSG at home, and they are already through to the knockout stages. A win would at least guarantee a Europa League spot.

Pioli’s hope for the Newcastle game is called Rafael Leao. The Portuguese winger trained with the group yesterday for the entire session, so there are good feelings that he could start tomorrow evening in England. If so, Christian Pulisic would return to play on the right: both will partner Olivier Giroud in attack.

Milan also Simon Kjaer and Noah Okafor but for the former there is very little hope, while for the latter today’s training will be decisive. Otherwise, he will be available again for Sunday afternoon against Monza.

The defensive emergency will continue: Theo Hernández will once again play in the centre of the defence with Fikayo Tomori. On the flanks Davide Calabria and Alessandro Florenzi. Jan-Carlo Simic does not qualify for List B so will not be available, while Ismael Bennacer was not named in the squad.

Pioli will still therefore rely on Tijjani Reijnders, Yunus Musah and Ruben Loftus-Cheek in the midfield, and Davide Bartesaghi will be the only reserve in defence.

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