Milan's start to the new year has been mixed. While the Rossoneri have retained their ability to thrill and entertain, they have been unable to garner the results.
A 1-0 defeat of Cagliari in the first game of 2011 was followed by a scintillating 4-4 draw with Udinese at San Siro. While that shouldn't exactly be counted as a disappointment, the weekend's 1-1 draw with relegation candidates Lecce should be, the two dropped points meaning that Milan now lead the Serie A charts by four points with city-rivals and Italian and European champions Inter hot on their heels.
Tonight's match, though, will be a wholly different ball game as Milan cannot afford to commit mistakes. The Round of 16 tie against Bari in the Coppa Italia looks to be an easy enough fixture on paper but this is a Cup game and the Diavolo will have to be careful.
Coach Massimiliano Allegri has expressed the keenness to embark on a long and successful Cup run and said on Wednesday, "When you win a trophy it is always nice, you have to try to get to the final, but to do so you always have to do the maximum. We need to rediscover winning ways after two consecutive draws [in Serie A]."
In Deep Crisis
One suspects that Bari could have done without playing an extra match this week. With just 14 points from 20 matches, the Galletti are rooted to the bottom and tonight's trip to Milan is an unnecessary and almost enforced distraction.
Bari's crisis reached a new level on Wednesday when coach Giampiero Ventura offered to resign from his job if that would help rescue the Biancorossi from dropping down to Serie B at the end of the season and said, "I am ready to relinquish my post.
"Even last night at dinner I told [president Vincenzo] Matarrese that if the answer to saving Bari is a change in coach then I'm ready to leave."
Bari, though, could still make tonight's match a meaningful affair and give Milan some tough time. Having already dispatched Torino and Livorno in the earlier rounds of the Coppa Italia and lost narrowly to Milan earlier in the season in the league, they could still hope to pull off a coup tonight at San Siro.
TEAM NEWS
Milan
Flavio Roma is likely to start in goal as Marco Amelia and Christian Abbiati both are currently unavailable. Andrea Pirlo has recovered his fitness but he is unlikely to be risked.
Mario Yepes, Massimo Oddo and Rodney Strasser could start as well although Allegri has claimed that he will field his strongest available line-up.
Bari
Vitali Kutuzov and Jose Ignacio Castillo are set to start in attack as the two centre-forwards in a 4-4-2 formation.
Prediction
A win for Milan looks the most likely result, although the resting of some of the regular first-team players could prove detrimental if the Rossoneri don't tighten themselves at the back.
Milan 3-1 Bari 
