Bari midfielder Massimo Donati is looking forward to renewing acquaintances
with his former club AC Milan tomorrow, and is confident his team are ready
for the challenge.

Giampero Ventura's side have had a solid start to the Serie A season following
their return to the top flight, with a win and three draws in their opening
four fixtures.

That unbeaten run was ended with a 1-0 reverse at the hands of Cagliari in
midweek, but the early signs have been encouraging.

A trip to Milan tomorrow presents a much sterner test for Bari, and Donati,
who spent six seasons at the San Siro earlier in his career, is determined to
make it a successful return to his former club.

"When I arrived at Milan I was too young and then our roads separated, without
meeting again,'' said the midfielder.

"It went like this, but now I think only about the present.

"We'll go to Milan to go for it, they are strong but we've already shown we can
do well against anyone. We are hungry and we'll try to show it.

"It's true that they are motivated, but we are just as determined: there are
important points on offer.''

Bari captain Jean Francois Gillet is also optimistic his team can get a good
result against the Rossoneri.

"We know Milan are a strong team, we'll go to an important stadium, but that
doesn't mean we'll avoid playing our game,'' he said.

"We'll go there trying to win the game.''

Coach Giampiero Ventura will be hoping for a better performance than the one
in midweek which saw them suffer their first league defeat of the season.

"We didn't play well,'' said Ventura. "We faced a team that was well organised
on the pitch and that has quality and superior physical condition to us.

"I was very impressed by Cagliari and I have to compliment them.''

Ventura has a number of injuries to contend with ahead of the trip to Milan
withAlessandro Parisi, Mariano Martin Donda, Matteo Paro, Vladimir Koman,
Riccardo Allegretti, Ferdinando Sforzini and Falque Yago all sidelined.

Milan have struggled to find their feet so far under new coach Leonardo, and
sit just one point and one place above Bari in the standings.

A 1-0 loss to Udinese in midweek marked their second defeat of the campaign,
and Leonardo admits poor finishing is currently Milan's biggest problem.

"We are not brilliant but we're not awful either,'' said the Brazilian.

"But we've haven't scored enough goals and that's obviously hindering us.

"We played well against Udinese. We played even better in the second half,
where we created three goalscoring chances.

"I think a draw would have been a fair result and that is why the defeat still
hurts.''

Mathieu Flamini will miss the match with Bari through suspension, while Daniele
Bonera, Davide Di Gennaro, Christian Abbiati, Marco Borriello and Thiago Silva
are still injured.

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