Milan are stand out favourites
On Sunday at 19.30 BST Cagliari host Milan at the Sardegna Arena. Cagliari are looking in decent shape after beating Atalanta 0-1 away from home. Perhaps even more impressively, Milan managed to take 3 points at home to Roma with a last minute winner, showing they have what it takes to be contenders this time round. Optimism abounds at the San Siro at the moment.
Cagliari
You have to give it to Cagliari after their impressive performance away to Atalanta. At the same time we must to be realistic. In the opening round of fixtures they lost 2-0 away to Empoli, and even against Sassuolo they struggled to take a point away from the match, at home no less.
The Sardinians have a dearth of quality in their ranks
I think Cagliari will struggle this season once again. And once again they’ll be hanging around the relegation zone, potentially embroiled in yet another fight for survival. The Sardinians have a dearth of quality in their ranks, with their only stand out players in the form of forward Leonardo Pavoletti academy man midfielder Nicolo Barella.
All in all their squad is simply too thin, only comprising 25 players. Not to mention the fact that I just don’t trust their back line for one minute, mostly built around ageing 36-year old Dario Srna and Ragnar Klavan. Klavan looks likely to miss the Milan match and his replacement looks even worse.
Milan
Milan succeeded in snatching all three points from Roma a couple of weeks ago with a 95th minute injury time winner from Patrick Cutrone. In all honestly it was well deserved, and it should have been a more secure victory.
Higuain is the missing piece of the puzzle
It shouldn’t be surprising really, Milan have a much stronger squad than in the last campaign. Welcome additions this season include the likes of Caldara, Bakayoko, Laxalt, the list goes on. But without a doubt the stand out transfer of their summer has to be Gonzalo Higuain from Juventus. The Argentine is the missing piece of the puzzle at Milan, and in him he has the ability to decide the match. The possibilities now that Bonaventura and Calhanoglu now have to deliver the ball to someone who can make the difference promises to be an exciting prospect.
In their opener they incredibly let a 2-0 lead slip, going on to lose 3-2 but we’ll chalk that up to a momentary lapse that shouldn’t be repeated certainly against the likes of Cagliari on Sunday. Milan are missing Strinic, but have a worthy replacement in Laxalt to shore up their defence.
Match Tips
Milan have impressed me in their two opening matches. Against Roma we saw glimpses of just how dangerous they can be to their opponents this season. Now, with more firepower and guile the horizon is definitely looking positive. Cagliari haven’t had much going for them in a long while now, and even a home advantage won’t be enough to pull this one through.
