AC Milan suddenly find themselves in Champions League territory, having won three games on the trot in the league. However, as the race remains more or less impossible, there is a lot of regret.
Yesterday’s win against Bologna was the fourth consecutive one for Milan, three of those in the league, and there’s no doubt that Sergio Conceicao’s men have found form. It’s a little late, though, as the Champions League race remains incredibly tough.
While fourth place is currently just three points away, most of the teams above have a game in hand and should thus extend the gap. Furthermore, Milan have Roma up next and the Giallorossi have been in tremendous form this year, so that game is far from a guaranteed three points.
The fact that we are even talking about Milan in the top-four race does leave us with a lot of regret, though. Looking at the games since Conceicao took over, the dropped points against the likes of Cagliari (1-1 draw), Torino (2-1 defeat) and Fiorentina (2-2 draw) stand out.
The Rossoneri were the superior team in the first clash and in the second, they conceded early due to a howler from Mike Maignan, while Christian Pulisic also missed a penalty in that game. As for the Fiorentina defeat, a shocking start (two goals in ten minutes) gave them a mountain to climb.
We are talking about eight points dropped here, so even if they had recovered just five of those, they would have been in fourth place right now. Not to mention that there were silly points dropped in the first half of the season under Paulo Fonseca, such as Cagliari away and Genoa at home.
In short, Milan have themselves to blame and winning the Coppa Italia on Wednesday would only partly salvage the season.
