GdS: ‘Victory or hell’ – why Milan are obligated to win in Conceicao’s UCL debut | OneFootball

GdS: ‘Victory or hell’ – why Milan are obligated to win in Conceicao’s UCL debut | OneFootball

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·21 de janeiro de 2025

GdS: ‘Victory or hell’ – why Milan are obligated to win in Conceicao’s UCL debut

Imagem do artigo:GdS: ‘Victory or hell’ – why Milan are obligated to win in Conceicao’s UCL debut

After the defeat against Juventus in the league, AC Milan are obliged to do one thing against Girona: win and push towards the top eight in the Champions League.

As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) reports this morning, Milan suffered their first league defeat under Conceicao on Saturday in Turin, meaning they sit eighth in Serie A and a top four spot is now even further away.


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However, outside of the league things have gone better. Juventus and Inter were beaten en-route to the Supercoppa Italiana, and the Rossoneri have racked up four wins on the spin in Europe, hoping for direct access to the last 16.

The team has only one result available tomorrow against Girona: victory. However, it extends beyond getting into the next phase without having to go through a play-off round and reflects more on the group in general.

Character

If Milan win tomorrow and then do the same against Dinamo Zagreb, they will avoid having to go through a two-legged play-off to reach the final 16.

It would mean having two more free weeks in February to dedicate ourselves to preparing for the league: a significant detail. In 22 days at Milan, from December 30th to today, Conceiçao showed up, played five matches, traveled to Saudi Arabia and in total had 14 days of training available.

This is too few, both to convey his tactical ideas and to work on building tough character. And it is also in training that the coach, with energy and intensity, can shape a team in his image and style.

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Solutions

Alvaro Morata is back in training and will be available. On his list of personal honours there are Champions League titles, won in 2014 and 2017 with Real Madrid, without however being truly a protagonist.

On the contrary, at Milan he should and must play the part of the experienced centre-forward, the one who guides his team-mates in the most difficult undertakings. Morata actually scored the second goal of the Rossoneri’s 3-1 win at the Bernabeu, the toughest Champions League clash so far.

Yet, nothing happened after that and the Spaniard is suffering from a lack of goals. The switch to a 4-4-2 is possible and today’s training session will tell us a bit more, but Tammy Abraham would obviously play alongside him in this case.

Rafael Leao would be on the left in this scenario with Yunus Musah on the right, then Youssouf Fofana and Tijjani Reijnders as the double pivot. The alternative is a 4-3-3 with Ismael Bennacer coming in for Abraham.

There will be a change in defence too, because Malick Thiaw’s injury and Fikayo Tomori’s suspension open up the chance for Strahinja Pavlovic. The Serbian has no guarantee of a place in the future but who inevitably has the certainty of being there tomorrow. Matteo Gabbia, Davide Calabria an Theo Hernandez should complete the rearguard.

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Enthusiasm

There will be around 65,000 fans at San Siro for the game, and they are expectant. They will arrive at La Scala intending to see an engaging performance and above all a victory that opens the way to the round of 16.

The finish line can only be crossed in Zagreb, winning at the home of Fabio Cannavaro’s Dinamo. Otherwise, cooling down even the Champions League ambitions would mean an increasingly harsh winter, with a February full of commitments and the need to chase.

For Conceiçao it will be the first European test, after the debut in the Supercoppa match and the three league games. In the last two years with Porto, his progress was stopped in the round of 16: in March 2024 against Arsenal, 12 months earlier by losing the quarter-finals to Inter when they deserved more.

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