Milan is clinging to the life raft of Thursday’s rescheduled match at the Dall’Ara against Bologna. Another defeat would drastically reduce hopes of reaching fourth place and securing qualification for the next Champions League. Bologna has the same points as Milan—41, which puts them in seventh and eighth place—and is making the same calculations in the standings. It will be a rescheduled match with the feel of a playoff.
A draw would favor those ahead in the table, even though Fiorentina and Lazio stumbled this weekend. On Sunday evening, three days after Bologna, Milan will host Lazio at San Siro. That’s more than enough to consider this a crucial week for the Rossoneri. Champions League or not? We’ll know soon.
How did Milan end up like this?
The team isn’t bad. In fact, many players, taken individually, are strong. But the coaches have struggled to make sense of it all—neither Paulo Fonseca nor Sergio Conceição has found the right formula. Conceição won the Italian Super Cup and reached the Coppa Italia semifinals, but he lost in Zagreb against Dinamo and in Rotterdam against Feyenoord, crashing out of the Champions League. Fonseca, at least, delivered that magical night in Madrid—the victory at the Bernabéu against Real. A beautiful optical illusion, in hindsight.
Both Portuguese, it’s curious that neither Fonseca nor Conceição managed to connect with their compatriot, Rafa Leao. Fonseca clashed with him, and there’s a sense that Conceição is on the verge of a similar confrontation with Milan’s most talented attacker. On Saturday in Turin, he substituted him at halftime due to poor performance. Milan should have transformed Leão, bringing out the world-class player within him. Instead, the opposite happened—Leão dragged Milan into a limbo of uncertainty, a state of what he could be but, for mysterious reasons, is not.
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Conceiçao’s problem is the lack of clarity in his tactical and strategic project. It’s unclear what kind of Milan he envisions. The arrival of João Félix forced him to expand the team’s offensive base. Reijnders and Pulisic have suffered collateral effects. The former has had to drop deeper, redefining his role further back. Pulisic sees João Félix as a competitor—someone who occupies more or less the same spaces, with similar creative intentions, and who tends to overshadow him. Conceição frequently changes formations and systems, adjusting mid-game, but a stable setup remains out of reach. The only certainty is a four-man defense.
Even the motivational aspect doesn’t seem to be working. Conceição was said to be Portugal’s answer to Conte, but his intensity appears intermittent and on a downward trend, as if the team no longer responds to his verbal outbursts. On Saturday, his body language on the touchline was telling. During the tough moments of the loss against Torino, Conceição spread his arms wide—a gesture of both sincerity and detachment, as if to say: This is what we are. What can I do?
Conceição signed a contract until June. Winning the Coppa Italia wouldn’t be enough to save him, even though Simone Inzaghi built his first season at Inter in 2021-22 on a domestic cup double—a feat still within Conceição’s reach. However, Inzaghi finished second in the league, secured an easy Champions League qualification, and still faced criticism for losing the Scudetto to Milan. These are incomparable situations.
The elite European competition, with its prestige and financial rewards, is the key to Conceição’s contract renewal. The short-term nature of his deal, expiring on June 30, 2025, gives Milan significant flexibility. One can imagine that the club’s management has already begun exploratory searches. Milan cannot afford to make another coaching mistake and waste yet another season.
Does Sergio Conceicao believe in his team’s chances to secure qualification?
The club, through ex coach Paulo Fonseca, at the start of the season announced that the goal is winning the Scudetto. Now, however, it is a far-fetched dream and a sporting miracle needs to happen to do so. The realistic goal, to save the season, is securing a top 4 spot. Current tactician, Conceicao, truly believes in it.
In fact, in his latest press conference, he said the following to the media:
“We always talk about attitude, but even today I saw a team that created a lot. We create situations, but then we need a little more in terms of the environment. We're here to work to change things, we're working hard. And the mistakes put us in difficulty. I want to say something truly from the heart: today, the season is not over, we are here strong, strong, to get to the end of the season for fourth place. I’ll be at Milanello working day and night: I don’t care, I’ll do hours and hours for fourth place.”
