Despite being outside of the European places currently, AC Milan still find themselves in a battle for a place in the top six, something which Raffaele Palladio takes great pride in.
In a season where Milan have been tremendously poor, they still find themselves in a position where salvation is possible, even if it may be impossible. For Sergio Conceicao, the goal remains to enter the Champions League, an unlikely goal, but one that is not impossible yet.
Then, there is the Europa League and Europa Conference League places, where the Rossoneri can still earn money from, something which will not be turned down if offered. However, there are teams standing in the way at present.
It may not be the case for too long though, as the Diavolo still have some huge games remaining, and this morning, Fiorentina’s head coach Palladino offered some words of reflection (via Milan News) on the Viola’s season, especially with Milan set to face them soon.
[The win against Juventus was a] Perfect match, we were always in control. Proof of the maturity of the team, the signs had already been there between Napoli and Panathinaikos. A victory that gives momentum, the fact of being there to play against Lazio, Bologna, Milan and Roma gives us pride.
Are the upcoming matches against Atalanta and AC Milan a crossroads?
“No, but they are two very important matches. But we have nine finals, it’s a very balanced championship and all the points count.”
We are -6 points from the 4th placed Bologna, but we have:
– direct matches with Roma and Fiorentina that could put us ahead of them in the table
– Bologna has the worst program of all with 7 out of 9 games against teams from top 10 (excl. Roma and Lazio). I doubt they will remain above us if we win the direct match.
– Juve has the best fixtures probably from all teams (a bit unfortunate for Mota to end the season well), but they have new coach, so it’s a big question mark
– Lazio will likely progress to Semi’s in Europa League and has games with Roma, Juve, Inter, Atalanta
Of course there’s lots of IFs but there’s going to be a lot of points lost for all the teams between 4th and 9th position until season end. It is entirely upon our own results to finish in top 5.
Even if we agree all ifs.
We should win all matches which seems more difficult ifs than other teams loosing ifs.
Not necessarily, as all the teams battling in this group have a lot of matches between each other, but definitely we cannot allow more than a loss or 2 draws.
Not saying this will happen, because it’s definitely more likely to screw things up, but as I said there’s no excuses for being too far behind the rest of the teams. All teams have their troubles until season end and our team is the best from this group (in theory), so Conceicao still has his chance to demonstrate he can make something out of this team.