Our final fixture of a turbulent calendar year is one that holds the promise of the spectacular as we visit the home of Serie A's most prolific attack, Roma, coached by the controversial and eternally entertaining Zdeněk Zeman. Allegri has warned that we will require a strictness in defence that has often escaped our team this year and such is not the routine waffle of the pre-match circus but a deep seated fear for a back four that has so often been betrayed by a moment's lapse in concentration. A back line that has too often provided the invitation to our opponents to strike will be coming up against an attack that breaks like the relentless waves of the ocean. Zeman is a hard nosed and driven coach who drills his teams mercilessly and with a direct attack on goal at all times in mind. Where Luis Enrique's Roma was like a skilled and artful swordsman well versed in the showmanship of his art, Zeman is the bandit with a short dagger that asks no questions in combat but relishes the thrill of the kill above the flourish of the disarmament. This is by no means to question the visual pleasure of Zeman's philosophy; Roma are a team that at their most fluid and brilliant shine like their own eternal city.

That men are imperfect shall always draw a curse from the lips of Zeman, a coach who will just as soon criticise the effort and play of his own charges as he will take a swipe at his favourite media punching bag, Juventus. Roma are still slowly becoming a reality, and their reduction to the listless and frustrating Roma that has plagued their long suffering fans is by no means beyond a team that is committed and organised. Our charge shall be the discipline that we conjured against Juventus, the willingness to compress space, defend doggedly and provide support to our back line in times of need.

This can not simply be a display of defensive fortitude however, as the tantalising prospect of returning to the top six awaits us should we prove victorious in the capital city. Last week against Pescara, we opened the scoring within a minute, yet our play was still to lack the intensity and finesse required from a top side, whilst the scoreline flattered a display that was largely pedestrian, despite a few shining lights. Robinho, regardless of whether his stay in Milan is about to end, must provide a consistent threat for ninety minutes, whilst the impatience shown by our final ball must be phased out, particularly with regards to our tendency to cross to a single target in Pazzini, who often has little support arriving at the edge of the box and a vacuum behind. The combinations in between the spaces between Roma's central defenders and their fullbacks have the possibility to delight Robinho and El Shaarawy, and Constant and De Sciglio must show discernment in attacking these areas, though they will doubtless have their hands full with Roma's dynamic attack. Lamela represents Constant's greatest test yet and tonight will show much concerning his progress and ability. Montolivo's ability to step up for us and help to sway the midfield battle back in our favour may be crucial to edging this contest, however a realistic assessment must admit that this is a treacherous fixture that will fall to the side that wants it the most on the day. Each side is fully capable of leaving the Olimpico with three points; we have to prove that we're the side that has the desire to climb the table and challenge for the Champions League. Defeat here would be a demoralising blow that will cast us frustratingly adrift, with no chance to respond as a team for two weeks.

Our very own poster, Baresi, will be watching from the stands tonight, we can only hope that he witnesses not only a spectacle to please the eye but also the heart.

Available squad: Abbiati, Amelia, Gabriel, Abate, Antonini, Bonera, De Sciglio, Mexes, Yepes, Zapata, Ambrosini, Boateng, Constant, Emanuelson, Flamini, Montolivo, Muntari, Nocerino, Bojan, El Shaarawy, Niang, Pazzini, Robinho.

Expected line-up: Amelia; De Sciglio, Mexes, Yepes, Constant; Montolivo, Ambrosini, Nocerino; Robinho, Pazzini, El Shaarawy

Roma's available squad: Lobont, Marquinhos, Bradley, Lamela, Osvaldo, Totti, Goicoechea, De Rossi, Pjanić, López, Perrotta, Destro, Piris, Stekelenburg, Dodô, Burdisso, Balzaretti, Romagnoli, Florenzi, Tachtsidis.

Expected line-up (courtesy of McLewis' excellent preview thread): Goicoechea; Piris, Burdisso, Marquinhos, Balzaretti; Bradley, Tachtsidis, Pjanic; Lamela, Osvaldo, Totti.

Amelia will start.. Abbiati has officially been demoted to second choice? allegri confirmed Amelia to start.. Damn barresi is lucky.. :/ how i wud kill to get in to one of those games.. FORZA MILAN.. m expecting a 2 - 1 win for milan.. :/ been really hopeful.. btw wat about abate? he had flu in the last game and is now fit. m hoping to see him on the right and MDS on the left. he is better at the back than constant.. constant can still have a bad day. so i suggest a more experienced fullback for such a crucial game.. and abate might just be the one. wat do u guys think?

Abate has just returned to full training as you stated, recovering from the flu that had plagued him until early this week, and I would personally like to see him in the line-up specifically to see De Sciglio tasked with controlling Erik Lamela. It is also worth noting that De Sciglio's performance against Torino on the left was punctuated by a series of beautiful deliveries from the left, of superior quality indeed to those regularly supplied by Mattia when playing from the right. One issue that remains to be resolved with our play down the left when De Sciglio mans the left flank is that of a comfortable overlapping option to provide width when El Shaarawy cuts in. Whilst competent on the ball, De Sciglio takes a while to grow into a more aggressive mindset in this position, though he has great potential on both sides.

It should also be noted that my expected line-ups are rarely entirely accurate, so we may well see Abate feature on the right. Personally I feel more comfortable given this fullback partnership, though to Constant's credit, against Pescara he showed that he is beginning to find his feet in attack, though his final ball was often disappointing.

There are periods where teams will play well and not get results, and then there are periods where teams play poorly and still manage to eek out the wins. Currently we are on the upturn playing some pretty football, and yet are not consistent enough for me to admit that we dominate every single match from start to finish. With Pescara we had moments where things could just have easily let slip from our grasp, more so than what the final score shows. It could have been 2-2 had the ball been on the right side of the post.

This match is another away game, and another tough match.We all know how lethal and prolific their attack can be, their attack has the potential to make even the shrewdest of defenses look childish. Given the age of their squad, its safe to say that our current team model is quite similar to theirs. I would compare ourselves to their team from last year, but Milan have of late found some consistency.

Roma at home are not an easy nut to crack. They did it against Fiorentina, but apart from that, their home matches have seen little in competition of note. Whilst they lost the last match away at Chievo, ending a winning streak, its because of this that they will want to get the win over us to pull themselves away from us before the holidays.

My Predictions:
1-2
We are in a good patch. But Roma are no pushovers. Roma will be wanting to get the loss from Chievo out of their system, and to put some distance between us before 2013. On the other hand, we are in a good patch after a dismal start to the season, and are finally consistently finding the back of the net (be it by ourselves or with some help ). Given both teams will only play in two weeks time after this match, there is no need for either of us to hold anything back this time around. With just 2 points separating us and them at the moment, and decent strike forces on both sides, it will ultimately come down to the small things, and who actually wants this win more. In that respect I expect our motivation may well be higher than theirs. They've been up near the top for too long, which is why they let slip last match, whilst we were near the wrong end of the table for just as long, and have no desire to lose any more ground.

Great job Dost, we should try to advantage of Zeman's all-out attacking tactics. I'd right more but sorta busy now i will be able to watcht the game live. Thank God

Official Line-ups:
AC Milan: Amelia, De Sciglio, Mexes, Yepes, Constant, Montolivo, Ambrosini, Nocerino, Robinho, Boateng, El Shaarawy.
AS Roma: Goicoechea, Piris, Burdisso, Marquinhos, Balzaretti, Pjanic, De Rossi, Bradley, Lamela, Osvaldo, Totti.

feel sorry for baressi. cudnt hav picked up a worse game to go.. :/ all my hopes nd dreams shattered in just few minutes..

I have a strange feeling that Allegri will get sacked if you end up 0-5 or something .....

DeviAngel wrote:I have a strange feeling that Allegri will get sacked if you end up 0-5 or something .....

I don't think so. If Allegri were to be sacked, he would have been sacked a month ago when we were near the relegation zone.

unbelievable..... there isnt one player who has played well. even el sharawwy and de sciglio.

incredibly frustrated what boateng nocerino ambrosini is trying to do

and yepes got beaten twice on goal!! well yepes has been piss poor.

how many games does it take for allegri to not play boateng.

or is allegri waiting roma players to get tired so he could play bojan???? he keeps telling that...


i think its better off getting beaten by roma, 4-0 5-0, because i am tired of el sharawwy always taking responsibilities and rest of them arent even feeling any regrets on how s..ty they have been...

what a rout

bojan almost assisted a goal and almost scored himself in 2 mins than boateng in in 70mins!!

that explains it all for me.

I would give boateng time until the end of the season and than sell him ...

Devastated that Baresi had to watch this live, no fan deserves to watch this. Galliani has a lot of work to do in Winter and he better not come up with bullcrap excuses

getting crushed by a team coached by freaking zeman!!!!

we've hit a new low!!

Boateng was awful. Without De Jong, our midfield has lost the little strength it had. But the most important factor was the horrible defending that was on display from our side. De Sciglio was not as good as he has been in some of the previous games, but Allegri keeps changing his flank every other week. What else do you expect? The guy is only twenty FFS. Let him settle and develop in one position. As for our CB's, well there is nothing Allergri can do about that IMO. They are all just not up to the mark.

Allegri just said that Milan played a fairly good match. Boban comments: "I don't think that he even believes that himself."

I know everyone on here has a lot of hate for Pazzini, but he should have started this game. This False 9 shit is not working. Pazzini and Bojan should have started this game. Ambrosini and Yepes looked lost, Mexes was terrible. Zapata, Acerbi, Bojan and Pazzini should have all started this match.

Milantildeath wrote:I know everyone on here has a lot of hate for Pazzini, but he should have started this game. This False 9 shit is not working. Pazzini and Bojan should have started this game. Ambrosini and Yepes looked lost, Mexes was terrible. Zapata, Acerbi, Bojan and Pazzini should have all started this match.

I fully agree with you on Pazzini. Our attack in the second half was better than in the first half(not by much, but it was better). Pazzini acted as a real CF and acted as a reference point to the attack as a whole. In the forst half, some times, it was as if Nocerino was the CF.

And even if we do have to play the CF-less false 9 formation, Boateng should not be anywhere near the starting XI. Bojan is a much better option. His introduction also made a big difference to our attack.

As for our CB's, none of them is good enough (Yepes, Mexes, Acerbi, and Zapata). However the thing with Acerbi is that he is relatively young and has potential to get better. So that's something positive. And Zapata was a beast two seasons ago. We all know what he is capable of. If he can rediscover his Udinese form, half of our defensive woes will be solved. So yes, I am in favor of starting them too. At least one of them alongside Mexes/Yepes is a must.

Now, who says we don't need new CBs?!

We lost control of the game, and basically let Roma play their own game. Roma's game was risky too, and I honestly felt that we could have got back into the game any time. Of course that never happened until it was too late. We were also unlucky in that we wasted a few good chances to score but Roma were extremely clinical to score their goals. Also, our most reliable players made some uncharacteristic and costly mistakes, and that hurt us particularly bad. I don't think it was a good idea to to play an ultra offensive De Scigilio together with defensivly unsound Montolivo, they are exposed big time. Seriously, had Bojan and Pazzo started up front, we would have had the creative spark and attacking reference that both could provide. Had Zapata or Acerbi been in the back to shore up the defense, we wouldn't have conceeded the three headers! The one thing that Pazzo does that Robinho doesn't is pass the ball up first-time for El Shaarawy. Robinho is always looking for a shot first and a pass second, it slows down our play so much. We really missed those first-time flicks and passes up till the last 10 minutes. By then it was already too late. I'm not saying that Pazzini should be a sure shot starter, but just that he was missed last night. Anyways, historically we've never been good in the fixture before the winter break, so maybe it was bound to happen.

roma deserves praise. they got it absolutely right!! and not just zeman with his tactics. but players too. and they have got players who are technically sound, and can play proper football. i mean players like bradley, pjanic, lamela, they had it all under control...the movement was superb!! i was so impressed. and there is totti, pulling all the strings, god he even was defending!!

and that goalkeeper was just absolutely amazing. some of the saves he made was just amazing.

so by how we played, we didnt deserve to win. it baffles me when allegri said we didnt play bad.... because that is one of the worst performance i have seen this season, and against lazio...

I was at the game 2 days ago. It was so hard to watch. I even left early and missed the 2 milan goals.
It was a big change from the last game I went to. I was at the Stadio Olympico when Milan won the Scudetto.

You win some and you lose some.