Overview
The race for Champions League tickets in Serie A is becoming extremely tense for AC Milan at the center of pressure. While Inter Milan has officially won the championship and is sure of a Champions League spot, and Napoli is almost completing the goal, Rossoneri is being fiercely chased by Juventus, Roma and Como in the top 4 battle.
The serious decline in form is causing Milan to lose the advantage right in the decisive stage. Massimiliano Allegri's team has lost half of their last 10 matches in Serie A and faces a great risk of being eliminated from the Champions League group next season.
The most worrying thing for Milan is that the attack has almost completely lost its inspiration. Rossoneri have only scored one goal in the last 5 matches in Serie A - the worst record in the league since the beginning of April.
This decline took place right after the important victory against Inter in the Derby della Madonnina, a match that was once expected to open a breakthrough in the Scudetto race. However, instead of maintaining the momentum, Milan plunged down with a series of disappointing results, most recently the 0-2 defeat to Sassuolo.
In that match, Domenico Berardi continued to become Rossoneri's "demon" when he opened the score early, before Fikayo Tomori received a red card right in the first half, causing Milan to completely collapse.
Amidst the wave of criticism aimed at the pragmatic playing style called "Allegri-ball", Milan only has three rounds left to save the season. Their next challenge is to welcome Atalanta at San Siro - an opponent that Rossoneri has not been able to defeat in the last six encounters.
Atalanta won four and drew two in that series of encounters, including a 1-1 draw in the first leg in October. The Bergamo team has also only lost two in their last 11 away games to San Siro in Serie A.
However, Atalanta's recent form is even more disappointing than Milan's. The 0-0 draw against Genoa last week almost dispelled hopes of entering the top 6 as they are 7 points behind this group.
Raffaele Palladino's team currently only has the practical goal of competing for seventh place to hope to win a ticket to the Conference League, in case Inter Milan wins the Coppa Italia.
Atalanta's spirit was also heavily affected after the defeat to Lazio on penalties in the Coppa Italia semi-finals. After a streak of 23 points after 9 matches, they only gained 10 more points in the last nine rounds.
Personnel situation
AC Milan will enter an important match against Atalanta without two important players in the squad. Luka Modric is out for the rest of the season after a serious facial injury, while center-back Fikayo Tomori is suspended after a red card in the defeat to Sassuolo.
Apart from those two cases, Allegri almost has a full force to choose from. What makes the Italian strategist headache at this time is the attacking problem, where many stars are clearly declining in form.
In particular, Pulisic has gone through 17 consecutive matches in Serie A without scoring. This makes Allegri have to consider other attacking options such as Christopher Nkunku, Niclas Fullkrug or Santiago Gimenez in the starting lineup.
On the other side, Atalanta also has a notable name, Charles De Ketelaere. The former Milan player is preparing for his 100th match in Serie A and will return to San Siro in a context where he has not scored any goals in the league since January.
Expected lineup:
AC Milan: Maignan, De Winter, Gabbia, Pavlovic, Saelemaekers, Fofana, Jashari, Rabiot, Bartesaghi, Leao, Gimenez.
Atalanta: Carnesecchi, Scalvini, Hien, Ahanor, Bellanova, De Roon, Ederson, Zappacosta, De Ketelaere, Zalewski, Scamacca.
The match between AC Milan and Atalanta takes place at 1:45 a.m. on May 11 (Vietnam time).
