With Milan set to welcome Chelsea at San Siro, the Italian media are gearing up for what they hope will be a different outcome to last week.
In the first of the two Champions League fixtures between the two sides, the Blues walked away with a 3-0 win at Stamford Bridge, leaving their Italian counterparts with a bitter taste in their mouth.
Revenge will be on their mind, and ahead of the game, Gazzetta dello Sport sat down with a player who has featured for both teams, and that’s Marco van Ginkel.
Finally leaving Chelsea last year after spending eight years there between 2013 and 2021, the Dutchman is now at PSV Eindhoven, which he got to know through three separate loan spells while at Stamford Bridge.
Rather quickly, the midfielder was asked about his time with the Premier League club, which defined most of his career.
He said: “It was all wonderful at the beginning, until the first knee injury from which it was difficult to recover. Then the level was very high. I’m happy to have found continuity at Milan and PSV. Those were positive seasons.”
They then talk about the man who convinced him to move to Chelsea, José Mourinho, whom Van Ginkel called a ‘very intelligent person who loves to play mind games’.
Asked for an example, he said: “I remember an episode before the Champions League semi-final with Atlético Madrid in 2014. Cech had a shoulder problem but in the fifteen minutes if training open to journalists, he warmed up regularly with the rest of the team. The next day, everyone had headlines about the goalkeeper’s incredible recovery.”
He was then asked about the seasons when Maurizio Sarri and Frank Lampard were Chelsea’s managers, with the two now at Lazio and Everton respectively.
Van Ginkel said: “Unfortunately, I couldn’t enjoy them fully. I didn’t have many opportunities to work with my teammates. Sarri is kind, a nice guy, even though he always smoked. He was interested in my condition. He asked me how my recovery was going and wished me good luck.
“I felt good with Lampard too, as he played a similar role to mine. He helped me a lot on the pitch.”
