Football

Coppa Italia, Bologna win after 51 years. Milan again to be rebuilt

At the Stadio Olimpico the final ended 0-1 thanks to Noye's goal in the 53rd minute. Yet another disappointment for the Rossoneri in yet another season of transition

15 May 2025

3' min read

Rightly so. The big celebration, which made the Stadio Olimpico explode with joy as if it were the Dall'Ara, was that of Vincenzo Italiano's Bologna who, beating Milan (0-1), won the third Coppa Italia in its long history.

It won't be the evening of miracles, as Lucio Dalla sings, but it won't be much, since the Emilian team not only won the trophy and qualification for the Europa League, but got there in the best possible way at the end of an unforgettable season on which no one, when a year ago Italiano arrived after Thiago Motta's departure, would have bet a penny. "I want to bring the people back to the square," the coach had promised in Piazza Maggiore, in front of the fans worried by that climate of apparent demobilisation.

Well: promise kept. From Piazza Maggiore, at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, 30,000 people arrived to celebrate a victory that had been awaited for 51 years. Since 1974, when Beppe Salvoldi and Giacomo Bulgarelli's Bologna won the Coppa Italia on penalties against Palermo.

A great celebration, that of the people of Bologna, contagious in its enthusiasm and warmth. With great exes like Roberto Baggio and Giuseppe Signori mixed in with showmen and singers like Gianni Morandi, Cesare Cremonini and Luca Carboni. All together on the pitch to reaffirm that Bologna is reclaiming a beautiful history that, as President Mattarella said on the eve of the match, is the history of the team that 'with its seven championships made the world tremble'.

If Bologna goes to Paradise, with its coach finally winning his fourth final in two years after three falls, Milan rightly goes to Hell. As rightly must a poor Diavolo go who also, in the most important appointment of a season to forget, was found unprepared and almost resigned: unable to react to the Swiss Ndoye's strike that arrived at the eighth of the second half, after an insistent action of Castro in the Rossoneri area. An all in all remediable disadvantage given that there was more than half an hour to go. But the Rossoneri's reaction, always well pressed by Bologna, was almost nil. Lots of balls thrown forward, or a sterile turn of the ball without ideas and precision.

In the first half, especially in the first quarter of an hour, Milan had also shown some responsiveness, almost going on target with Jimenez and Jovic.

Fireworks, which soon petered out in a very fragmented, nervous challenge with many cautions. A challenge in a precarious balance with Bologna more organised and Milan more disordered who relied on the rare flashes of Leao and Jimenez, with Reijners and Pulisic not very incisive and a defence - especially on Tomori's side - approximate and perforable.

Conceicao, after Ndoye's goal, tried everything, shuffling the formation with all the possible changes. But, apart from more confusion, and sterile pressure, nothing changed. "This match is the mirror of this season," Conceicao commented.

Words to live by. For Milan, almost out of Europe even in the league, difficult days now lie ahead. They are likely to come to a reckoning after a season to be written off for a club of its ambitions, with the third highest payroll in the league. The conquest of the Coppa Italia, after the Super Cup won in Riyadh, would have partially mitigated the discontent for the resounding delay in the standings. And perhaps even allowed Conceiacao - albeit with the appropriate reservations - to reapply to lead the team. After this umpteenth cold shower, every alibi disappears. And inevitably, those knots will have to be untied - including those of a society that has been too absent and wandering - that have long conditioned the Rossoneri club.

Needless to mention that the club has been looking for a new sporting director for months. Needless to mention that it is still unclear what Ibrahimovic's role is in a management team that has changed two coaches in a few months, often leaving them without adequate support. Milan's future is uncertain and still to be written. To err is human even in football, but to persevere would be diabolical.