AC Milan were far from fully convincing in their win over Hellas Verona on Sunday, but they got the three points they badly needed.
As Corriere della Sera (via MilanNews) write this morning, it had to be a victory and it was. Without dazzling and with great difficulty at times, Milan returned to winning ways yesterday after two consecutive defeats, beating Hellas Verona who are destined for Serie B.
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The match was decided by a goal from Adrien Rabiot, with the assist by Rafael Leao. It was another narrow victory, their 13th by a single goal, and their eighth 1-0. No one in Europe’s top five leagues has achieved as many as that, in true ‘corto muso’ style.
Mission accomplished
Milan struggled and left the result open until the end, but ultimately achieved their mission, catching up with Napoli in second place. More importantly, they extended their lead over fifth place to eight points. With five games remaining in the league season, this is certainly a reassuring advantage.
The Rossoneri are seven points short of mathematically securing participation in next season’s Champions League and thus achieving the primary objective the club had set itself since day one of 2025-26.
It’s no secret that for the club – which aims to give Max Allegri an ambitious Milan squad for season – it’s crucial to secure the €50m minimum that the Champions League brings in revenues, just for participating.
The long-sought victory arrived, but the Diavolo are certainly not healed. Indeed, they still have many problems: the most obvious is undoubtedly the attack, which also struggled yesterday against a defence that has conceded nearly two goals per game on average.
Christian Pulisic, for example, remains unrecognisable and even yesterday against the joint-bottom team he failed to find the net. Not that Leao performed much better than the American, but at least he provided the assist for Rabiot’s winning goal.
Next Sunday, the big match against fourth-placed Juventus is scheduled. Who knows, Milan’s strikers might decide to wake up in this direct clash for the Champions League, or Allegri could make changes.
Allegri played whole season with only 16 players. There are only 16 names which gone through more than 1100 minutes of play. Where Estupinan, Nkunku and Ricci, played more from the bench.
Even, result was much better when Estupinan didn’t play at all.
Allegri in his first season lock defense leaking by not conceding 2 goals every second game like last season.
To get strong attack you must bring better players.
Wingbacks with similarities like Dumfries and Dimarco, and not Estupinan who loses everything he starts.
Bartesaghi is awesome back up also like Salad.
In attack player who will play more than Nkunku Gimenez And Fullkrug combined and even score more.
Yup. Allegri fixed the defense and that’s what got us to where we are now. 1-0s are the Italian way arent they? lol. He needs to figure out
1.how to improve the attack w/o exposing the defense.
2. Smooth peaks and valleys from our arguably top players. When Rafa and Puli are on, they are incredible.. when they are off. they are also incredible but for the wrong reasons. Allegri needs to figure out why this happens every season.
Hi Milanelo, Estupinan started 12 games, Milan won 8 drew 2 and lost 2. So Milan’s results are NOT much better when he doesn’t play….he may not be the player Milan should rely on for that position, and you are entitled to you own opinion, but not your own facts.
No matter with attacking issue / crisis. As long as they can win the match, Go ahead. I miss italian football like this. Play bad games but they winning the match. 😂😂
No matter with attacking issue / crisis. As long as they can win the match, Go ahead. I miss italian football like this. Play bad games but they winning the match. 😂😂…
“I miss italian football like this.”
I don’t!!! I honestly thought many times about turning off the tv as it honestly was the cr4ppiest football I’ve seen since the Banter era. And if I’m being honest, even those matches had SOMETHING to look for. You never knew what kind of supergoal Mexes would pull off but the match yesterday was a torture from the beginning till the end. Pure sh1te.
If this is the best Milan can do against the 2nd worst team in the league they honestly don’t deserve to finish in TOP4.
FFS, it took 85 minutes to Milan to get their first cornerkick against a relegating team. And they played it short and after two back-passes they played the ball to their own half. That really sums up the performance nicely.
Small village team mentality. Or actually, not even clubs with stadiums with 5k spectators play that weak and scared against relegating teams.
Yes thats Italian style bro.. how many minutes that players wasting time in corner kick, throw in or even injury. I watching italian football statistics at 2000 era, in 90 minutes of play games they only effective 70 minutes. The rest 20 minutes its for wasting time: corner kick, throw in, injured bla bla bla …
If you watch milan 1990 – 2000 era until ancelotti come in, you know milan have strategy ‘ corto stretto’ in italian football. Capello era they only win 1-0 with defense style ( maldini,baresi, costacurta, panucci ). They winning the championship.
Todays article in football italia website, Gullit said that italian football have to be back with their own pride: defense. I think its logic that on this term and situation, all Milan need is only winning the match, secure champions league spot
Winning playing ugly football and winning playing beautiful football are both = 3pts.