As another Serie A week-end draws near, AC Milan vs. Atalanta could very well be David Beckham‘s last game for the Rossoneri, and I for one will be sad to see him leave Italian football. Milan might not have been great over the past few weeks or so, but for me Beckham has added to the Milan side considerably and would probably continue to flourish in Italian football. If it doesn’t happen now it could happen in November anyway when his contract at LA Galaxy runs out (there are speculations Milan is waiting to do just that: snatch the player on a free transfer for January 2010) so even if he does return we may not have seen the last of the former England captain.

Beckham aside this is a very important game for AC Milan and one they have to win. Ancelotti is under pressure to qualify for next season’s Champions League and the losses to Werder Bremen and to Sampdoria will not have gone down well. Galliani has even issued Ancelotti with an ultimatum: he must finish third or lose his job so the stakes are high for the San Siro manager.

Atalanta however will be no pushovers. They might have been beaten by Sampdoria and Chievo in their last two fixtures but they have come up with some very respectable performances over the course of the season, most notably their 3-1 demolition of Inter Milan and 3-0 victory over AS Roma. Atalanta are sitting comfortably in mid-table and with neither European qualification or relegation to worry about there is a lot less pressure on Del Neri than Ancelotti.

La Dea might not have the biggest squad or a side full of famous names but they do posses a lot of quality in their ranks. Striker Sergio Floccari has already notched up 10 goals this season and I’m sure he’d love to add to that at the San Siro. Midfielder Cristiano Doni is another name to watch out for, the vintage ex-Azzurri midfielder (whom you may remember scoring vs. Japan in a pre-2000 World Cup friendly match) having lost very little of his technical abilities over the years. I doubt this will be the easiest of fixtures for Ancelotti’s side.

With that said, I still expect the Rossoneri to get back to winning ways in this one: it won’t be easy and Atalanta will provide a stern test, but Milan’s superior quality should see them through. If you’re planning on making any online bets on the weekend’s fixtures I quite fancy Sampdoria to beat Bologna and Catania to emerge victorious over Siena. Inter Milan and Juventus should also be too strong away at Genoa and Torino respectively in what should be safer betting advice.

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Tags: AC Milan, Atalanta, Carlo Ancelotti, Cristiano Doni, David Beckham, Serie A

Posted in Atalanta, Milan, Serie A |

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 7th, 2009 at 9:22 am and is filed under Atalanta, Milan, Serie A. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.