Probable Formations: Milan vs Roma
Roma kicks off its Europa League quarterfinal first leg on Thursday at the San Siro against AC Milan. Daniele De Rossi will have the majority of his preferred starting XI available for this one, but he will be missing one regular starter: Evan Ndicka.
After being suspended for Saturday’s Derby della Capitale victory over Lazio for yellow card accumulation, Ndicka will sit this one out for the same reason after being booked against Brighton in the Round of 16. With Gianluca Mancini back in full training, De Rossi will have to choose his partner along the backline.
And his prematch press conference comments may have shed some light on who he sees starting alongside Roma’s vice captain.
“Smalling? Smalling is fine. He’s been regularly training with us. On Saturday I brought him in because I thought we needed strength and quality.”
“He can play tomorrow just like everyone else, he trains hard, he’s looking much stronger lately, we are satisfied with him.”
Given those comments we believe that the Englishman will get the nod over Diego Llorente. It’s also anticipated that Leo Spinazzola will be given the starting spot on the left over Anegliño after being rested for the majority of Saturday’s derby. Meanwhile, Zeki Çelik should start again on the right to try and neutralize the threat coming from Leao down Milan’s left.
The midfield leaves for very little debate with De Rossi’s preferred trio of Bryan Cristante, Leandro Paredes, and Lorenzo Pellegrini all ready to go. In the attack there shouldn’t be much debate either. Romelu Lukaku is expected to lead the line as usual with Paulo Dybala and Stephan El Shaarawy flanking him in De Rossi’s 4-3-3. And De Rossi spoke to Sky Sport about what he expects from his two star attackers.
“Dybala and Lukaku? They need to be trained a lot and stimulated. They must be aware that they can and must give us the most of what they have.”
“Football-wise they need to be managed differently: we need Paulo to be free and able to move across the entire offensive front and go where they don’t expect him to go.”
“Romelu needs to have many players who collect and receive the ball between the lines and then send it deep, there he can unleash his strength and his incredible technique.”
The presence of those two in tandem could be key, as Dybala missed out on both previous Milan fixtures this season.
ROMA (4-3-3): Svilar; Celik, Mancini, Smalling, Spinazzola; Cristante, Paredes, Pellegrini; Dybala, Lukaku, El Shaarawy
