AC Milan players take part in a training session ahead of the Final of the Italian Super Cup which will be played in Doha yesterday.
It will be experience vs youth when Juventus take on AC Milan in the Italian Super Cup final at Doha’s Al Sadd Stadium today.
AC Milan has turned things around this season under first-year coach Vincenzo Montella, fully embracing a youth movement, while Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri is banking on his experienced brigade in the match usually between the Serie A and Italian Cup champions.
“AC Milan has a lot of young players and thus the final will pit one team which has a lot of experienced players against a team with a lot of youth,” said Juventus coach Allegri on the eve of the match.
Relying on 17-year-old goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, 18-year-old midfielder Manuel Locatelli and forward M'Baye Niang, a relative veteran at 22, Milan is only two points behind second-place Roma in Serie A.
Juventus, however, is seemingly on an unstoppable march to a record sixth Serie A title The gap in experience between the two teams is vast. Not only does Milan have a much younger team, but they also aren't used to winning trophies.
The players likely to start the match for Milan have only 10 titles between them, while Juventus' probable starting lineup boasts 97 titles between them.
It is a similar situation with the coaches: Montella has never won a trophy, while Massimiliano Allegri — who was fired by Milan in January 2014 - has seven. Juventus is bidding for a fourth Super Cup victory in five years, and one which would see it extend its record in the competition to eight titles.
Milan can move level with Juventus if it wins its seventh title.
It is also likely to be club president Silvio Berlusconi's last chance to add to his 28 titles won in charge of Milan, with the sale of the club to a group of Chinese investors set to be completed on March 3.
It is the second time that the Super Cup is held in Qatar, the last time in 2014.
Milan only qualified for the match as Italian Cup runner-up after Juventus won both the league title and cup last season.
Milan beat Juventus for the first time since 2012 in October. But the team lost in April in the league and was also defeated in last season's Italian Cup final, which Juventus won 1-0 after extra time.
Montella wants players to put the delayed flight issues behind
Coach Vincenzo Montella wants his players to put the delayed flight issues behind them and instead concentrate on a ‘winning mentality’ in the Italian Super Cup final in Doha today.
The Rossoneri’s flight to Doha was delayed, while their opponents Juventus, arrived 24 hours earlier.
CEO Adriano Galliani insisted this was a ‘sporting disadvantage’, but the coach was is in no mood for excuses.
“There was a misunderstanding but it’s a closed chapter now,” Montella shrugged in at a pre-match press conference.
“There’s no need to return to it. Juventus have a winning mentality, and that’s the hardest thing to maintain over time. That has to be our objective and we’re on course to achieve that mentality.”
Montella said the future look bright and AC Milan are on the road to reclaiming their place among the elite clubs.
“I arrived a few months ago and Milan were coming off the back of some results which weren’t up to expectations, given the history of this club. So, in collaboration with the club, we’re looking to create something for the present but also for the future. We’ve grown in recent months.”
