The story is a familiar one for AC Milan on the day of their game against Parma: Inter won, so they are duty bound to respond with a win of their own.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) write this morning, Inter are not letting up, and it means that if Milan win against Parma they will remain seven points behind the league leaders, their opponents in two weekends’ time in a do-or-die derby.
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On the other hand, a win against the Gialloblu would allow the Rossoneri to extend their lead over fifth-placed Juventus to 11 points. With 12 games remaining in the season, it wouldn’t guarantee qualification for next season’s Champions League, but it wouldn’t be far off.
All this despite Allegri’s unwillingness to give up hope ‘because we have four head-to-head matches against Inter, Napoli, Juventus and Atalanta, and there are a lot of points up for grabs’. It’s a smart way to deflect some attention away from the derby, which is the last game Inter lost in the league.
For Max, Parma provides an opportunity for revenge, after his side went 2-0 up in the away game before collapsing and drawing 2-2. The victories achieved in 2026 against Cagliari, Lecce and Pisa have partially solved the problem of facing bottom-half teams, but the Rossoneri cannot let their guard down.
Title hopes and a change for revenge
Against Parma on 21 March 1993, Capello’s Milan racked up 58 games without a defeat, whereas the present run is 24. Allegri has been doing his calculations again: “Inter are going very well and, if they maintain this average, they will reach 88-90 points.
“To reach that level, we would need twelve wins and one defeat… If they were to fall behind and we didn’t take advantage of the opportunity, we would be making a grave mistake, but right now, Inter are the clear favourites for the Scudetto.”
Allegri’s side can try and apply pressure, but everyone knows that Chivu’s men are masters of their own destiny and that the Rossoneri can only win and hope. This is why mental energy must be focused on one match at a time, and certainly not on a currently distant goal like first place.
If, after beating Parma and Cremonese, the Rossoneri repeat their feat in the derby, then the conversation (perhaps) will be different. For now, there will be no distractions from the Champions League target.
Not even when the topic moved to the refereeing incidents did Allegri move away from the goal that is at the forefront of his mind: “The management are thinking about that. We need to get the points we need to finish in the top four.”
Milan returned to San Siro on Wednesday after a month, and in their last five home games, they’ve only taken the three points twice, when they’ve kept their own goal unbeaten (3-0 against Verona and 1-0 against Lecce).
They’ll have their fans to push them forward, and in the dugout will be Marco Landucci. This season, when he replaced the suspended Allegri, he has won every match: twice in the Coppa Italia and twice in the league. Making it five wins from five would get the Diavolo closer to securing top four.
