Come back next year, Milan

They won’t be champions, they might not even qualify for next season’s Champions League. Few people expected Milan to fight for the title ahead of this season, but they did try to convince us that they were for real. It was already clear that Inter were superior in Italy this season, but Lazio exposed a painful fact: Milan are not even close.

Lazio hosted Milan at Stadio Olimpico in Rome and taught them a footballing lesson. Joaquin Correa scored an impressive double for the sky blues and made Milan fans look nervously behind their shoulders with Napoli and Juventus just below them on goal difference.

Correa scored a fine early opener to set the tone for the match, making Milan chase shadows all night. And it was the former Sevilla and Sampdoria forward who made Fikayo Tomori look silly before slamming in another goal five minutes into the second half to double the lead for the Romans.

Ciro Immobile had a nice attempt to chip Donnarumma late on, but was unlucky to see his effort bounce off the post. But Immobile showed his class just a few minutes later to blast in the third and complete the humiliation of the Rossoneri.

It was a frustrating night for Milan to say the least.

For many months Milan looked like title contenders. They managed to grind out results in the first part of the season and were top of the Serie A table. It looked like coach Stefano Pioli and veteran Swede Zlatan Ibrahimovic could carry the Rossoneri all the way.

But then, 2021 rolled in and Milan’s season started to unravel.

Star performance by Joquin Correa (©AFP)

Two home league defeats in January, in matches against Juventus and Atalanta, showed signs of wear in an already thin squad. An injury to Zlatan, contract-related uncertainty regarding Gianluigi Donnarumma and Hakan Calhanoglu took their toll as relentless Inter reached the top.

February was the month where Milan lost the race. Successive defeats at the hands of lowly Spezia and, crucially, rivals Inter were too damaging on the team’s belief and spirit. While Inter were plugging away and putting points on the board, Milan, along with reigning champions Juventus were dropping points like crazy.

Unstoppable Inter!

It wasn’t all bad, to be fair. A dramatic comeback and a 3-1 win at Fiorentina and a hard-fought victory at Roma were impressive results, but it simply wasn’t enough. All talk of getting their hands on the trophy for the first time in ten years was hollow. They were only lying to themselves.

SERIE A - Round 33

Saturday

Genoa - Spezia 2-0 (0-0)

/Scamacca 62, Shomurodov 86/

Parma - Crotone 3-4 (1-3)

/Hernani 29, Gervinho 49, Hihaila 54 - Magallan 14, Nwankwo 42, 69 pen, Ounas 45/

Sassuolo - Sampdoria 1-0 (0-0)

/Berardi 69/

Sunday

Benevento - Udinese 2-4 (1-2)

/Viola 34 pen, Lapadula 83 - Molina 4, Arslan 31, Larsen 49, Braaf 73/

Inter - Hellas Verona 1-0 (0-0)

/Darmian 76/

Fiorentina - Juventus 1-1 (1-0)

/Vlahovic 29 pen - Morata 46/

Cagliari - Roma 3-2 (1-1)

/Lykogiannis 4, Marin 57, Pedro 64 - Perez 27, Fazio 69/

Atalanta - Bologna 5-0 (2-0)

/Malinovskyi 22, Muriel 44 pen, Freuler 57, Zapata 59, Miranchuk 73/

Monday

Torino - Napoli 0-2 (0-2)

/Bakayoko 11, Osimhen 13/

Lazio - Milan 3-0 (1-0)

/Correa 2, 51, Immobile 87/