How Milan’s Champions League hopes look after resurgence – the midway point | OneFootball

AC Milan have now played four games in the UEFA Champions League and it is fair to say that things are looking much better than prior to the Real Madrid fixture.

Looking at the opening fixtures, Milan objectively had one of the toughest starts to the campaign, and their results matched this. An opening day loss to Liverpool was disappointing, and whilst the performance improved slightly against Bayer Leverkusen, the disappointment increased.

Two games, zero points and a difficult position to get out of. Nevertheless, with wins against Club Brugge and that phenomenal win against Real on Tuesday, the Rossoneri find themselves in a significantly better place.

Reminder of the format

Traditionally, the Diavolo would now play the same four teams in reverse order, starting with a home leg against Real Madrid. However, the competition no longer works in a group format, but rather a league one – which we fully broke down before the campaign began.

UEFA decided to move ahead with this plan to make the opening stage more competitive and more entertaining, and after Tuesday, perhaps the Rossoneri are in favour of the new way of things working.

Milan will now play four more games against Slovan Bratislava, Crvena Zvezda (Red Star Belgrade), and Girona, before travelling to Dinamo Zagreb on Matchday 8. At present, only the Croatian outfit sit above the Diavolo, but by the time they meet, Milan will hope to be in a much better position.

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Let’s look at where they are now, though.

Where Milan sit

Currently, the Rossoneri sit quite gridlocked in 20th position with three teams on either side of them also on six points. The 3-1 victory on Tuesday has now put Paulo Fonseca’s side onto a positive goal difference as well, which could be pivotal.

Only three points separate the Diavolo and a place within the top eight, a favourable task considering their opponents (more on that slightly later). However, should they not reach those automatic advancement spots they will hope to finish between 9th and 17th to ensure a home-leg in the play-off places.

Milan’s next game sees them travel to Slovakian outfit Slovan Bratislava – who currently sit bottom of the league with a -13 goal difference. With only two goals (scored against Celtic and Dinamo Zagreb), the Rossoneri should be able to maintain a focus on the Juventus game prior to that meeting.

Following this, the Rossoneri welcome Red Star Belgrade to San Siro in the middle of December, and with the Serbian outfit having a similarly depressing record so far, another victory will be expected. Again, the European fixture follows a difficult Serie A fixture (Atalanta at the Gewiss Stadium), so rotation could be afforded.

The penultimate game of the campaign sees Girona travel to San Siro, and once again the Rossoneri will face Juventus before, so Fonseca’s rotation will be scrutinised before the fixture. At present, the Spanish outfit sit in 29th, after only recording one win against Bratislava.

Finally, Fonseca’s side will travel to Croatia to face Dinamo, a week after the fixture against Girona. Once again, the squad will have to be considered, with the Derby della Madonnina taking place on the following weekend.

All in all, Milan are in a fairly good position to challenge for the top eight, and that will be the expectation from the club, especially considering some of the other teams in the mixer.