Depleted Milan closer to CL after holding Juve
AC Milan took another step towards Champions League qualification after Saturday’s goalless draw at Serie A rivals Juventus.
Stefano Pioli is close to securing Milan, in second, a spot in Europe’s top club competition in what will almost certainly be his final season at the club.
Pioli is reportedly set to be replaced by Julen Lopetegui after a campaign, which has ended in disaster, with a Europa League exit at the hands of Roma and a humiliating city derby defeat which gave the league title to Inter Milan.
However, with a top-five finish guaranteeing Champions League football Milan are 15 points ahead Lazio who are sixth after their 1-0 win over Verona with four rounds of the season remaining after this weekend.
Atalanta, who have six games left to play starting with Sunday’s home clash with struggling Empoli, are a further point back in seventh. “I’m pleased with what the players showed today... they kept fighting to the end,” said Pioli to DAZN after his team failed to register a single shot on target.
“I’m happy with the spirit. They carried out our plan with a great attitude in a difficult period in the season for us.”
A place in the Champions League basically assured before kick-off, Milan had little to play for and a host of absences following a stormy end to their painful loss in Monday’s derby with Inter.
Pioli had a threadbare defence with Theo Hernandez, Davide Calabria — both sent off late on in the derby — and Fikayo Tomori all suspended, while Simon Kjaer and Pierre Kalulu were also unavailable.
To make matters worse, Milan then lost France goalkeeper Mike Maignan to a hamstring problem suffered during the pre-match warm-up.
“A lot of the noise has been caused by Inter winning the league. If it had been Juve or Napoli, there wouldn’t have been so much chaos,” said replacement goalkeeper Marco Sportiello, who ended up being crucial to Milan getting a point.
“The Europa League was the biggest disappointment, but we’ve had a good league season. We’ve had so many injuries... but we go again and now we’re going to try and secure second place.”