Milan-Juve: Pioli and Allegri, two technicians in the final sprint

The pedigree has taken on strength. The course of honors, the curriculum, define it as you like best. Stefano Pioli and Massimiliano Allegri made the tour of Italy. Very long hat, which happened at an immediate point for Massimiliano known as Massi (none of his old friends call him Max). Quarters of nobility as a player for Stefano Pioli, but as a coach he had to wait a long time to get the right opportunity. There was the marriage with Lazio brought back to the Champions League, then the Inter option. But in the end, something was missing.

Key Man

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Write down a name: Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He is the man who helped Massimiliano Allegri to win the Scudetto on his first attempt as a forty-year-old coach who came from provincial football with the body of the role, as Adriano Galliani said at the time at AC Milan, and is the same player who collaborated ten years later to grow a group now very close to the top. Always Zlatan. Coincidences upon coincidences, such as those that dot the life and careers of Pioli, the host tomorrow at San Siro, and Allegri, the man of many championships who now finds himself in difficulty. Many friends in common, starting with Giovanni Rossi, current sporting director of Sassuolo. Maybe not similar path, but the apprenticeship was long for both of us. Two stages in common, Sassuolo and Grosseto, moments that were fundamental especially for the Juve coach. Now Pioli and Allegri find themselves in the good living room of San Siro which has also reserved some sofas for the Juventus coach, while Pioli only attended Juve as a player, also winning a Champions’ Cup when he was very young. Are you traits in common? Playing, one defender and the other imaginative attacking midfielder, they could have done more. Perhaps. Then comes the injuries and various other components. Allegri, for example, was called by Fabio Capello’s Milan as a reinforcement for a summer tour, but the adventure did not last long. Missed opportunities that came back even more fascinating when Massi chose to coach.

Suitcases

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For different reasons, Pioli and Allegri did not manage to reach the top as players, but their coaching career paid off a few empty boxes. Now they are at the center of the scene in the northern metropolises, but it is difficult to find in Italian football, and probably also in Europe, two men equally capable of traveling and wandering without fear even in the smallest clubs. Their personal tour of Italy is varied: Aglianese, Bologna, Cagliari, Chievo, Fiorentina, Grosseto, Inter, Juve, Lazio, Lecco, Milan, Modena, Palermo, Piacenza, Salernitana, Sassuolo, Spal and Udinese. Pioli completed a longer circumnavigation than that of Allegri, who after a complicated period of apprenticeship found the launch pad of Cagliari (nice attacking football, the one they reproach him for not trying anymore) before finding himself at Milan in the last few Berlusconian splendors. He had been called to refound, they placed Robinho and Ibrahimovic in the team. The pressure rose, Massimiliano was not caught unprepared. From there he took off towards the Champions League titles and finals with Juventus.

Missed crossings

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Stefano Pioli and Massimiliano Allegri, almost the same age, touched each other as players in Padua: one at the start, the other at the entrance. Another stage in the career of two people who have always known how to get busy between provinces and cities. Tomorrow they find themselves in front of the San Siro in a match that can say a lot if not everything: Milan does not want to lose the road that leads to the top, Juventus does not want to abdicate the role of top club that even in complicated moments must at least qualify for the Champions League. It will not be easy for anyone, much less for Allegri who is the coach of the last championship, yet in Milan he was a little underestimated. After the years of splendor, both for Milan and Juventus, we need to start again quickly, with judgment. The Rossoneri club has been following an austere line for some time, Juventus are trying even if coming from recent splendor is not easy. Being able to count on two coaches who have cut their teeth in the provinces and have been on a roller coaster all their careers is no small advantage. Pioli and Allegri, six championships of difference, but the roots do not change. And they can tell many things.