AC Milan arrived in Florence last night and the mission is simple: to try and win in order to lock down a top four spot and maintain or even extend that gap to Juventus.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) report, Milan arrived in the city yesterday – with a flight delay, but that’s another matter – and hope to leave again before Easter Sunday with qualification for the next Champions League in their pocket.
There isn’t that much missing to seal the matter. Milan are +3 over Juve, third, +8 over Bologna who are in fourth and +11 over Roma in fifth. They are also +15 on Atalanta, who have a game in hand, and the detail matters because it’s likely that there will be five Italian clubs in UCL next season.
It means that Pioli has one foot in the 2024-25 Champions League, the first with the new format, which is, as every year, a big target for the club. Florence can give the final push and it is no coincidence that Pioli yesterday highlighted it as the key match of the next two months.
Napoli and Atalanta, who are aiming very hard for that fifth place, play against each other at lunchtime. Thus the message becomes simple: with a win, Milan would say goodbye to the company and could free their heads for the double Europa League derby with Roma, now only 12 days away.
In all this, on the sidelines, there is also an economic question. By winning, Milan would rise to 65 points and, from there, could be optimistic about second place, which brings richer TV rights and the certainty of playing in next year’s Supercoppa.
Pioli will go with the best team, with one exception. Alessandro Florenzi will play on the left, replacing the suspended Theo Hernandez. Pioli wants to keep the levels high, because from mid-November to today, Fiorentina have lost only once at home, 0-1 against Inter.
