AC Milan are a club that has won virtually everything there is to win in football, and yet they have a strange relationship with a competition they play in every year: the Coppa Italia.
Milan have won 19 league titles, making it the second most successful club in the Serie A together with city rivals Inter. The Rossoneri also have 7 Supercoppa Italiana titles, with the most recent coming against Juventus in 2016.
In international competitions, Milan’s 18 FIFA and UEFA trophies is the third highest out of any club in the world (joint with Boca Juniors and Independiente). The club have a total of 20 major international trophies, including seven European Cup/Champions League titles.
However, there is something that stands out when looking at domestic honours: the club have only won five Coppa Italia titles in the 102-year history of the competition. The last time they hoisted it was in 2003, over 20 years ago.
A symbolic defeat
Milan crashed out of the Coppa Italia at the quarter-final stage this season as they lost 2-1 to Atalanta at San Siro back in January.
Things seemed to be going in the right direction for Milan when Rafael Leao’s fantastic finish in the closing stages of the first half made it 1-0, but Teun Koopmeiners equalised within 90 seconds.
Koopmeiners would sting the Rossoneri again in the second half and this time from the penalty spot after Alex Jimenez was controversially penalised for a foul on Miranchuk. The Dutchman converted from 12 yards, and it would prove to be the winner.
Milan’s Coppa Italia drought will therefore continue, and it is a bitter blow given that many saw the competition as a legitimate trophy target given the teams eliminated already.
Coppa Italia tickets
Despite this, hope always remains that Milan can put together a run in the 2024-25 season when they should have a deeper squad that can compete on multiple fronts. If you want to go to a game, you should check out Coppa Italia tickets.
The Coppa was originally organised by the DDS and the Football League until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since.
Juventus are the competition’s most successful club with 14 wins, followed by AS Roma and Inter with nine. Juventus has contested the most finals with 21, followed by Roma with 17 finals.
The holder gets to put the ‘Coccarda d’Italia’ on their shirt, a red and green badge akin to the roundels that appear on military aircraft.
The winner also automatically qualifies for both the UEFA Europa League group stage and the Supercoppa Italiana the following year.
