The defeat against Borussia Dortmund was a huge blow for AC Milan in their 2023-24 Champions League campaign, but it will not cost Stefano Pioli his job.
The 3-1 loss in front of a sold out San Siro has made it nearly impossible for Milan to reach the knockout stages in Europe. They now need to beat Newcastle United away from home and hope that Dortmund win against PSG in order to go through, while even the Europa League is at risk given the Rossoneri are bottom of the group now.
All this took place under the eyes of Gerry Cardinale, who also showed up at Milanello today along with CEO Giorgio Furlani to meet Pioli, with whom he had lunch. There had been reports in the media suggesting the head coach’s job is at risk, but that does not seem to be the case.
During an update for Sky from outside the training ground, Peppe Di Stefano provided some interesting nuggets of information, starting with the obvious: “Pioli has clearly been confirmed also and above all after yesterday’s defeat.
“Today at Milanello, a day of analysis, Pioli was right yesterday to say that our future does not depend on us but on the other teams. Meanwhile you have to go and win against Newcastle, Milan in five games have only won one, against PSG, they conceded three goals against PSG and three against Borussia.
“Newcastle are certainly not an unbeatable team, we had proof of this during the first leg, but yesterday they still had one foot in the round of 16 until the 98th minute. This is to make you understand how balanced the group was.
“Pioli ‘s Milan in recent years has stood out for its identity. At the moment the identity isn’t there, there are too few players available, if there are few players available there is no quality. As a result, either you are a Milan like the one seen against Fiorentina, or you are a Milan like yesterday that hangs on to incidents.
“Maybe if we had scored the penalty to make it 1-0 we would have seen a completely different game, but with ifs and buts we don’t get anywhere. The players are now leaving Milanello, demonstrating that the mandatory lunch with the team was already planned.
“No one from the staff has left yet, including Pioli, so evidently the scheduled meeting was not only with the players but above all with the coaching staff.”
"Pioli chiaramente è stato confermato anche e soprattutto dopo la sconfitta di ieri"
"La visita di Cardinale è stata una buona notizia per il mondo Milan"
"Analisi del momento negativo, conferma di Pioli, nel corso del pomeriggio entreremo nello specifico" pic.twitter.com/XlABepTY9X— 💫 (@not_Furge) November 29, 2023
fml. more of the same it is