San Siro emptied early after supporters once again sang the former director’s name as club faces lack of Champions League football … again
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here were more than seven minutes left to play, plus injury time, in a crucial end-of-season game, yet San Siro was already half empty. Milan’s Ultras had deserted the Curva Sud to prepare a post-game protest, but even the less organised, more forgiving parts of the club’s fanbase could not be bothered to stay until the end of another humiliating defeat.
Their team was losing 3-0, at home, to Atalanta, and it hardly even felt a surprise. With this loss, inevitable as it now appeared, the Rossoneri had collected just seven points from their last eight games. Only three teams in Serie A had done worse over the same stretch. Two of those – Verona, and Pisa – have been relegated. The third, Lecce, are perilously close to joining them.
Milan exist in a different orbit, still fourth in the table, even if their grip on a Champions League spot looks very loose indeed. It feels absurd to say it now, but before this miserable run they were the team keeping the Serie A title race alive. They were the last team to beat Inter, since crowned as champions, on 8 March. The gap between them, with mocking symmetry, was seven points.
