Coppa Italia, Milan-Lazio and Pioli-Sarri: 15th match between them

In a parallel, dystopian, distorted universe, Pioli and Sarri are the coaches of Lazio and Milan. In that order. With this historian. Vintage 2015/16. Stefano beats Bayer Leverkusen and enters the Champions League by breaking through the door with a kick; Maurizio, on the other hand, accepts Milan and opens a cycle. The first year he builds, the second annoys everyone, the third he fights with Juve for the Scudetto. All this has never happened and perhaps it would not have happened anyway, but there was a time when the paths of the two coaches could cross like this, with Pioli at Lazio and Sarri at Milan. Maybe. Tonight they compete in the Italian Cup for the fifteenth time in their career. The first in 2005 in Modena-Pescara 2-0, Serie B, double by Bucchi; the last one in the first leg of the championship, another 2-0 win by Pioli.

Sarri and Milan

–

There was a time, however, when Sarri was at the top of Galliani’s list. Summer 2015, Milan are looking for a profile capable of rebuilding. The CEO he does his duty and gives the boss – Silvio Berlusconi – a series of names. One of the first is Maurizio Sarri, the former banker who overturned Empoli and showed the famous “good game”. Silvio thinks about it, reflects, studies, but in the end he turns to Mihajlovic. Here the legend comes into play. It seems that Berlusconi has turned up his nose at the name of Maurizio because of his political ideas, his unkempt beard and cigarettes. Galliani’s son Gianluca once told it: “There were some problems for some phrases he had said earlier.” Myths never confirmed. Berlusconi has always denied- “Sarri didn’t come to Milan because he was a Communist? He’s not true” -, Mau never talked about it. The contact between the two, however, is a known story, also because Silvio was so enraptured by his game that after an Empoli-Milan push to meet him in person.

Pioli and Lazio

–

The story between Pioli and Lazio was intense and ended suddenly. Stefano hit an historic third place in a thriller match, against Napoli at the old San Paolo today Maradona. Over by two goals, then Higuain’s brace and the Argentine missed a penalty at 2-2. Parolo and Klose did the rest. Lazio in the Champions League preliminaries after two months of high level, eight victories in a row from February to April, a Felipe Anderson never so continuous and a perfect orchestra dragged by applause. In Lazio-Empoli 4-0 there were fifty thousand people. Pioli did the same with Milan and today he is enjoying the fruits of hard work. He is like that, he plans and shuts up, he makes the results talk. The 2015/16 vintage did not go according to plan, and after failing to qualify for the Champions League, having conceded 3 home goals from Sparta Prague and wrecked in the April derby, Pioli was replaced by Inzaghi. Few of Lazio are left: Strakosha (third goalkeeper 2014/15), Radu, Cataldi, Felipe Anderson, Patric and Milinkovic. Today he is one of the best midfielders in Europe. A little credit must be given to Pioli.