AC Milan coach Sinisa Mihajlovic backs Mario Balotelli to shine

They sold young starlet Mateo Kovacic to Real Madrid for €35 million, and made over €20 million on Hernanes and Ricky Alvarez.

Inter and AC Milan take to the field this Sunday having received major facelifts this summer, after years of neglect to their once healthy visages. At the moment, this Juventus bears little or no resemblance to the all-dominant side, which cruised it, way through much of last season.

Mihajlovic, who was Mancini’s assistant at Inter between 2006 and 2008, said: “It will be hard for us to play even worse than we have done already”.

“We are only in week three and football can change in the space of 90 minutes. If he continues with the approach he’s had in this first week then he’ll be fine”, he added. “They are the favorites”. Though Milan had a mixed summer in many aspects, I thought they would be exceeding expectations whilst Inter would underachieve.

It’s set to be a record-breaking derby too. “It’s by playing like this that we can start to look at how well we can do in the league”.

Striker Aduriz opened the scoring in the sixth minute at the San Mames with a trademark header before midfielder Garcia, who joined from Atletico Madrid last month, nodded in a second in the 24th minute.

“He definitely did well after he came on”, said Coach Sinisa Mihajlovic. He’s a pure one, a real one.

I’d love to see Maradona manage Balotelli. Alessio Romagnoli was also a bright spot, stopping several Inter attacks in their tracks.

“The lad has class. He could be the heir of the great Rossoneri defenders”.

However, Mihajlovic’s reign didn’t get off to the best of starts with a defeat to Fiorentina on the opening day.

Juventus lost to chief rivals Roma a fortnight ago and with Inter Milan and AC Milan threatening to challenge this season, the pundits can smell an upset.

“Mario will win this battle”.

“Balotelli came on; we can’t judge him after one game”.

Lippi was also asked for his analysis of some of the other Serie A teams, including another of his former clubs, Napoli, and new Coach Maurizio Sarri.

“If I were the president of Napoli, my first decision would be to sign Mario Balotelli”. I didn’t expect it to be more entertaining since both teams always approach this particular match with more fear of losing than desire of winning, making it a matter of concentration and safety and leaving little room for entertainment.

“Then there’s the mystery of Felipe Anderson”.