The 2024-25 season has seen the start of a new era for the Champions League. After decades of tradition, the group stage format has been thrown out the window to be replaced by a 36-team single league table. The top eight teams from the league automatically qualify for the round of 16, while the 9th to 24th placed teams compete in a two-legged play-off to make it through. It’s an exciting new twist for this iconic European tournament — and AC Milan could be in with a shock chance of winning it this season.
AC Milan Are Looking To Win Their First Champions League Trophy Since 2007
Despite being one of the most recognisable names in European football, AC Milan have struggled to win a Champions League since the days of Pirlo, Kaká, and Gattuso. It’s now close to twenty years since Milan got their hands on a UCL trophy. During this time, the Champions League has been dominated by the likes of Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, but there’s still hope amongst Milan fans — and even football purists — that Milan can rise back to the top of Europe and land a spot in a UCL final again.
This season, it’s fair to say that Milan are the dark horses of the competition. Nobody expects them to win, especially since they’ve been underperforming in Serie A so far, yet they have a team that’s more than capable of surprising people in Europe. Christian Pulisic in particular has been in absolutely sensational form, proving to be one of the biggest attacking threats in the whole of Europe, while the likes of Rafael Leão and Tijani Reijnders have also been excellent. And with Milan currently sitting seventh place in Serie A with no realistic chance of winning the title, their best hope of salvaging the season is to shift their focus to the Champions League.
Heading into 2025, the Rossoneri's UCL campaign has been a mixed bag. After a disastrous start under the new format, which saw them lose their opening 2 games against Liverpool and Leverkusen, the club has since gone on a 4-game winning streak. The best of the bunch was Milan’s 3-1 win over Real Madrid, who still remain one of the favorites to win the competition this year. And with Pulisic currently playing his best football, there’s a strong chance that Milan can carry this momentum into the round of 16 and potentially go deep into the competition.
As things stand, it looks like Milan won’t automatically qualify for the round of 16. Instead, they’ll enter the playoffs. If they can then get through the playoffs, they’ll make it to the round of 16, where the road from there is the standard quarterfinals, semifinals, and final. The key will be keeping Pulisic injury-free, while avoiding in-form teams like Liverpool and Leverkusen until the latter stages. Some might call it mission impossible, but Milan have proven over the past few Champions League games that they’re no pushovers in Europe and are capable of pulling results out of the bag when needed, even though they’re struggling domestically in their own league.
AC Milan Remain Champions League Underdogs with Betting Sites
Despite a major improvement of their last 3 UCL games, AC Milan are currently 50/1 with most sports betting sites to win the trophy this season. This is largely reflective of the club’s poor form in Serie A combined with the back-to-back Champions League losses that came during the first part of the season. Betting expert Alex Windsor from minimumdepositbettingsites.com agrees with these odds but believes it’s worth betting on Milan to achieve automatic qualification for the round of 16:
“If you’re finding the new Champions League format to be confusing, don’t worry — most fans are in the same boat. What I can tell you is that Milan probably aren’t going to win the UCL this season, which is ultimately why they have 50-1 odds. However, based purely on the club’s current 4-game winning streak in Europe, there’s a pretty good chance that Paulo Fonseca will drag them to an automatic qualification spot. Milan have 5/4 odds to finish inside the top 8 of the new UCL league table, so I’d be safe and bet on them doing this instead. If they do successfully quality and the likes of Pulisic and Rafael Leão can stay on-form, who knows what could happen after that. In my opinion, there’s no reason why Milan can’t then make it to the quarterfinals, but anything after that might be a bit of a stretch.”
Who Are the Current Champions League Favourites?
If Milan are going to pull off a shock Champions League win this season, they’re going to face some harsh competition. The current favourites are Liverpool at 9/2, a club that’s in red-hot form and currently sits at the top of both the Premier League and Champions League tables. The next favourites are last year’s winners Real Madrid, who are currently struggling for form but have proven on countless occasions that they can win the UCL without playing their best football. Other potential winners include Manchester City, where Pep Guardiola is currently having the most disastrous spell of his career, and Arsenal, who have yet to prove themselves in Europe under Mikel Arteta and are unlikely to make it past the round of 16.
Summary
Can Milan fans allow themselves to dream of a potential Champions League trophy this season? Yes — but the odds of Milan actually doing this are extremely low. Despite Pulisic having an amazing season and the club currently riding high on a 4-game win streak in Europe, it will likely be too much of an ask for Milan to make it all the way to the UCL final, as this will mean crossing one of the likes of Liverpool or Real Madrid along the way. Realistically, Milan fans can hope for a place in the quarterfinals, which would still be an impressive feat following Milan’s poor start to the Champions League campaign earlier on in the season.
