Pierre Kalulu and Fikayo Tomori missing for AC Milan’s second leg against Rennes
The Rossoneri put one foot in the last 16 with a 3-0 win over the French side in last week’s first leg.
AC Milan will be without Pierre Kalulu and Fikayo Tomori for the Europa League visit to Rennes.
The Rossoneri put one foot in the last 16 with a 3-0 win over the French side in last week’s first leg.
Both players are on the way back from long-term injuries but are not ready for Thursday’s match, though might make the weekend clash with Atalanta.
Boss Stefano Pioli said on Milan TV: “It’s clear that Kalulu and Tomori haven’t trained with us for a long time, so getting them back will be very important.
“They won’t be available for tomorrow night, if anything we’ll see for Sunday. It’s clear that we were happy to have some important players back in the group.”
Piolo stressed that the tie is not over, despite Milan’s dominance in the first leg.
“We approach it with great concentration, great desire to pass this round,” he said.
“It is clear that we took a good lead in the first game but it is equally true that we cannot consider it over.
“We are playing against a team that, despite changing five or six players, won in the league match.
“We know each other well, both us and them. That can be an advantage but we can also expect different things because they will try to come back.
“We are just focused on what we have to do to get through the round.
“Their verticality, their speed for sure and also their positions, in the first leg they tried to put us in trouble with different positions than we thought.
“We can also expect something different tomorrow night. It’s a fast team, it’s a quality team that absolutely will not raise the white flag easily.
“We will have to be good at reading the game with great attention, with great conviction, managing well and trying to hit the opponents.”