Anatomy of a suicide. Milan also loses to Atalanta. Now they risk the Champions League
by Dario Ceccarelli
Anatomy of a collective suicide. Of an endless fall into the abyss. By now, Milan's umpteenth crash, beaten 3-2 at the San Siro by Atalanta, even overshadows Inter's fresh Scudetto, as shiny and undisputed as you like, but all in all easily framed by normal footballing logic.
The Rossoneri's collapse (four defeats and only one win in the last six games), on the other hand, has something inexplicable, absurd and indecipherable about it. Until a month and a half ago, after beating Inter in the derby, Milan were still in the running for the Scudetto ahead of Napoli. Now, with two days to go, it risks losing the Champions League too. Overtaken by Juve, and joined in fourth place by Roma (victorious in Parma), the Diavolo is the weakest competitor in the race for Europe.
It is true that it would be enough for them to score six points against Genoa and Cagliari, but this group, booed and protested by its fans, who left the San Siro after Atalanta's third goal, seems to have completely lost its bearings. It no longer knows how to win with anyone. A dismasted sailing ship at the mercy of the current. Even a pillar like Maignan no longer gives any guarantees. Atalanta, who were also coming from a critical period, until the 3-0, ran on the rubble of Milan, of which only a splintered post by Rabiot and a few individual tricks are remembered at the start. Few ideas and much confusion. And after Emerson's first goal, only the Dea was seen on the pitch, again in the net with Zappacosta and finally with Raspadori, good at beating Maignan, who was more and more in trouble like the whole Rossoneri defence.
Only in the final minutes did the Rossoneri have a surge of pride: first with a dunk by Pavlovic, one of the few who did not give up. Then Nkunku doubled the score on a penalty kick. In the second half, Fullkrug came close to equalising, but it would not have been fair. There was a very heavy protest, directed above all towards the managing director Giorgio Furlani and the top management of the company, guilty, according to the fans, of wrong investments and unsuccessful choices such as that of having sent away Paolo Maldini, continually evoked in the chants.
Allegri himself, who has completely reshuffled the team, can no longer make mistakes. Losing Europe is the equivalent of losing almost 100 million and the coach from Livorno had only one mandate this year: to get Milan back into the Champions League. Perhaps with a short face. But this Milan, apart from scoring in droves, scores an industrial quantity of goals: nine in the last six games. So much for short-facedness. All this while the rivals, Juve, Roma and Como themselves have scored and won again. Como itself, sixth, two points behind Roma and Milan, already has one foot in Europe. Seven years ago it was in Serie D. Now it has this poor Diavolo in its sights.


