Zenit 1 Milan 0

I learn something new every single day. Apparently another prerequisite to being a good Coach is making wholesale changes in meaningless games. This is in addition to being nice and subbing early, so if you are following along, based solely on comments on this blog, in order to be considered a good Coach you need to do the following: sub early even at half-time, for no rhyme or reason, because that is what good Coaches do, be nice because being nice helps you win football matches, and finally if you are in the CL and the game is meaningless rest everyone; the loss will have ZERO effect on your next match, I promise.

Now I don't believe any of that stuff at all, and this weekend Milan may come flying out of the gate like gangbusters and destroy Torino, or they may come out flat because they are used to play twice a week and the progress and momentum built from the last few weeks will be stalled. Only time will tell on this one, but I tend to be of the belief that if a team is progressing you want to harness that progress and move it forward, or more simply put don't try to fix it if ain't broke.

No sense in beating a dead horse, so Max did choose to the take the wholesale change route. So games like these become less about the result and more about the performances. These are players who don't always play and could use a match like this to make a case as to why they should be considered as starters. Allegri rolled out the tried and true 4-3-1-2 with Boateng in the hole and Bojan and Pazzini up top. Two strikers requires a bit of physical and finesse from each player and Bojan was incapable of the physical and Pazzini incapable of the finesse. Milan did well to move the ball but Flamini was atrocious and Mesbah offered on the flank. The pleasant surprises were once again DeSciglio, but Acerbi's ability to play the ball from the back was a welcome surprise and a sorely missed role with the departure of Silva. He was in fact the stand out for me, while Flamini and Mesbah reaffirmed their "For Sale" status but didn't do anything to make that sale more palatable for someone.

So onto the next round, and we all know it will be almost surely be PSG, and I say bring it on!!!