AC Milan: the story of a historically tragic evening for the Rossoneri

It’s one of the biggest shocks in European football and the poster that all Calcio lovers eagerly await every season. Inter Milan and AC Milan crossed swords Monday evening on the San Siro lawn, during the 33rd day of Serie A. This 237th Derby della Madonnina had a very particular flavor since in the event of success for the Nerazzurri, the Simone Inzaghi’s players were going to be officially crowned Italian champions. During a game relatively dominated by the Serie A leaders, Inter overcame their Milanese rival (1-2) thanks to the opener from Francesco Acerbi then the great achievement from Marcus Thuram. This is the first time in the history of Italian football that a team has been crowned ahead of its rival since 1930. The evening had already started badly with the defeat of the AC Milan Primavera against Olympiakos in the final of the Youth League but then everything got worse.

“I went into the locker room to cheer up the boys, it’s a heavy defeat, for all that it implies behind it. I tried to comfort my players, there is still one end of the championship to play and an important match on Saturday. Unfortunately, we couldn’t at least equalize in this derby. I’m disappointed from a tactical point of view, we wanted to wait for them and get going again. Inter hurt us in the first half on corners and on certain counter-attacks. We wanted to defend low so as not to concede depth., explained the Italian coach, Stefano Pioli, at a press conference. Officially, the Rossoneri were playing at home and this Monday, April 22, 2024 risks remaining forever engraved in the history of the Milanese Diavolo as the most traumatic day for different reasons.

A second symbolic star for Inter

The images of the Inter Milan celebration on the pitch of the San Siro stadium looked like a scene from a film and the more dramatic elements were added, the more the overall scenario seemed to take on the appearance of a horror feature film for Milanese fans. This defeat against Inter marks AC Milan’s sixth consecutive loss in a Milan derby. Worse still, Stefano Pioli became the coach who fell the most times in the history of the Milan club with a total of ten defeats against the Nerazzurri: “The team fought, we were a little unlucky. Inter had an exceptional championship, Inter has had the strongest squad in the championship for 3-4 years. We lacked continuity in performance”, analyzed Pioli. But with this 20th Scudetto in its history, Inter now has one more title than AC Milan. It is the second team, after Juventus and its 36 scudetti, to glean a second star above the crest, synonymous with a second ten champion trophies. Beyond the defeat and the symbols that result from it, AC Milan’s performance leaves something to be desired.

The expulsions of Théo Hernandez for his start of a fight with Denzel Dumfries then of captain Davide Calabria for this slap on Davide Frattesi illustrated the total drowning begun by the Rossonero ship in recent weeks. This should put an end to the hopes of Stefano Pioli, under contract until June 2025, of being retained at the end of this white season: “The cycle is over? I don’t know. I’m doing well, I’m working well, the team has room for improvement. I live in Milan and I saw that 14 months ago Inzaghi was almost worth throwing away and then look what he did, we will take stock at the end of the year”, declared Stefano Pioli who seems to see his future being written further and further away from Lombardy. The setback is all the more complicated for the Italian coach, already on an ejection seat at kick-off, because it took place in front of many club legends as well as the entire AC Milan management including notably the American owner, Gerry Cardinale, as well as his advisor, Zlatan Ibrahimovic. On the shelves of several Italian clubs including Bologna, Stefano Pioli should not last long…