AC Milan’s defeat against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last night was damaging for more than one reason, with their group stage hopes now up in the air.
La Repubblica (via SempreMilan.it) reports that the loss in west London has consequences on the group standings, which at the time of the draw seemed a much smoother potential passage to the knockout stages compared to last season’s draw of Liverpool, Atletico Madrid and Porto.
After three games Red Bull Salzburg are top with five points to their name, while at the bottom are Dinamo Zagreb on three points, and then Chelsea and Milan are each on four points with the Blues ahead on head-to-head.
Next Tuesday’s rematch at San Siro turns into an evening already full of pressure, while it is already looking likely that the game against Salzburg at San Siro in matchday six could be decisive one way or another.
fortunately, Salzburg has once again undergone a huge team upset and has the worst statistics in the league in the last 5 years. Otherwise, which is the reason why we have scored a point in Salzburg.
If we lose tuesday – then again no UCL in spring
Despite some surprising results thus far, it’s not a surprise at all if advancing out of the group comes down to the Salzburg match at San Siro on matchday 6. If Milan can’t win that game, then that is a failure that will see them deservingly not advance. If they do win, then the group has more or less played out as expected.
Don’t let the poor display at Chelsea confuse the reality that on the day of the draw most will have (accurately) written off that game as a loss. The matches that will determine Milan’s fate will be those at San Siro and the two against the weakest side in the group (Zagreb). In those games, so far it’s 3 points out of 3.