In the first twelve days of the championship, the Croatian always started from the beginning and in the last eleven he played 90 minutes. There isn’t a forty-year-old like that in the five top European tournaments
Luka knows how to do it. Because in his career he has won everything there is to win and is used to high rankings. Luka’s legs won’t shake because he has already shown that he knows how to use them, and very well, not only to draw football, but also to lend a hand to the team in the non-possession phase, with interventions from the midfielder. Luka’s ideas won’t be clouded because his teammates and fans have already learned a rule that in Madrid, from 2012 to last June, everyone knew by heart: ball to Modric equals ball… to the bank. It will be the Croatian Genius, with his football computer mind, who will try to lead the Devil to the top of the table at least for one night. Three points against Lazio would allow Allegri to spend Sunday comfortably sitting on the sofa, waiting for Roma-Napoli in the evening. The comparison with Sarri’s team, however, is not only an opportunity to return to the top (a sensation already felt after the seventh matchday), but also a real test of maturity for a Milan team fresh from the great joy of the derby. Max focused a lot on this aspect during the week, and in Thursday’s press conference: top attention and determination are needed. Having that eternal boy born in Zara on 9 September 1985 as a “megaphone” on the pitch makes him feel calmer. Although, rest assured, he will spend very little time sitting calmly on the bench and without shouting.
STAINLESS
—
Modric will play match number thirteen in a row in the championship tonight as a starter. Only on the first day against Cremonese was he replaced half an hour into the second half. For the rest he was always on the pitch for ninety minutes. Eleven times in a row. Not even three months ago he blew out a cake with forty candles and he has already played over a thousand minutes in the championship (1,055 to be precise). In the five top tournaments in Europe there is no other forty-year-old like him, but examples around the world are also rare, albeit in less competitive championships. You have to go looking in Saudi Arabia (a certain Cristiano Ronaldo) and Brazil (Thiago Silva) to find someone who has a four as the first digit of his age on his identity card and still knows how to be so continuous in terms of use and performance. When Milan signed him on a free transfer in June, the management was aware that they were taking a star player fresh from a season with over three thousand minutes on the pitch with Real Madrid, but they didn’t imagine he could have this resistance. Or if you prefer he would have been so decisive in every match. Allegri’s impact was fundamental in giving courage and mental security to a group returning from eighth place in the table in 2024-25, but it is undeniable that for Max, having a Ballon d’Or winner like the Croatian in the control room is a great advantage. Because Luka and Rabiot, together in midfield, combine class and physicality, running and intelligence, leadership and charisma. They also know (and above all) how trophies are won and it is natural for their teammates to follow them, to lean on them especially in delicate moments of the match. It is inevitable that Sarri will try to take away their spaces and playable balls with the pressing of Guendouzi, Vecino and Basic. If L’Aquila wants to try to move up the table, they need a shot at the Meazza.
MATURITY’
—
Last season, with Fonseca first and then with Conceiçao, the Devil never found the continuity of performance necessary to achieve satisfaction (with the exception of the Italian Super Cup put on the board). Just last March 2, the Biancocelesti won at San Siro (2-1), making Maignan and his teammates realize that the end of the season would be complicated. With Allegri and Modric the music has changed and the results against the big teams (victories against Napoli, Roma and Inter, draw in Turin with Juve) testify to this. Waiting to see whether the lessons taught by Cremonese, Pisa and Parma have been useful against the smaller teams (just two points collected), there is Lazio who, despite the blocked transfer market last summer, have a quality team. On the night in which the last two coaches capable of winning a championship for Juventus will compete, Modric will find himself facing, perhaps once the match has started, the Pedro he faced in the Clasico in Spain. For Luka, who plays every match as if it were a World Cup final (in the 2018 one in Russia against France there really was…), the long-distance comparison with the Spaniard will be a further stimulus. Maybe to score like against Bologna or to provide an assist to Leao, who at San Siro, in his home games, feels again… at home. After a 2024-25 season with zero goals in Serie A at the Meazza, in the last three home matches against Fiorentina, Pisa and Roma he has scored three goals and one assist. Rafa scored in the first leg at Lazio last year, in the cooling break match missed due to rebellion. It seems like a lifetime ago now that Allegri and Luka have put things right at Milanello and the second star’s title is no longer an illusion.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED