Clarence Seedorf has picked his Milan line-up for tonight’s Coppa Italia quarter-final against Udinese” data-scaytid=”3″>Udinese, but there’s a flu epidemic.
The one-off knockout game kicks off at San Siro at 20.00 GMT with the winners going on to face either Fiorentina” data-scaytid=”5″>Fiorentina or Siena.
Clarence Seedorf has picked his Milan line-up for tonight’s Coppa Italia quarter-final against Udinese, but there’s a flu epidemic.
The one-off knockout game kicks off at San Siro at 20.00 GMT with the winners going on to face either Fiorentina or Siena.
The Rossoneri won their debut under the new Coach, beating Verona 1-0 with a late Mario Balotelli penalty on Sunday evening.
There is no let-up in the pressure for Seedorf, who was until last week still playing football for Botafogo, as this match is worth a place in the Coppa Italia semi-final.
It is particularly important, as Milan’s disastrous Serie A form means winning the Coppa Italia could be their best hope of qualifying for Europe.
Ignazio Abate is back in the squad after a long injury lay-off, but Stephan El Shaarawy, Giampaolo Pazzini, Marco Amelia and Sulley Muntari are sidelined.
At the last minute, Milan also released a statement revealing Bryan Cristante, Andrea Poli and Cristian Zaccardo have all been ruled out of tonight’s game with flu symptoms.
Because of that situation, Philippe Mexes and youth team player Andrej Modic have been added to the squad.
Adil Rami was set to be used as a right-back, but is now in the centre of defence, with Valter Birsa, Ricky Kaka and Robinho supporting Balotelli in Seedorf’s 4-2-3-1 system.
Udinese knocked Inter out of the competition in the last round, but are fresh from a shock 3-2 Serie A home defeat to 10-man Lazio.
Antonio Di Natale is on the bench, but Luis Muriel gets his first start in over two months after recovering from a knee injury.
Milan: Abbiati; De Sciglio, Zapata, Rami, Emanuelson; De Jong, Nocerino; Birsa, Kaka, Robinho; Balotelli
Milan bench: Coppola, Gabriel, Mexes, Honda, Abate, Constant, Silvestre, Iotti, Pinato, Di Molfetta, Mastalli, Modic
Udinese: Brkic; Danilo, Heurtaux, Domizzi; Gabriel Silva, Widmer, Allan, Badu, Lazzari; Bruno Fernandes; Muriel
Udinese bench: Kelava, Naldo, Bbunjic, Basta, Douglas, Jadson, Pinzi, Pereyra, Nico Lopez, Zielinski, Maicosuel, Di Natale