Milan’s Poor Champions League Record Indicative Of Lack Of Quality

It didn’t make for great reading from a Milan perspective, and it wasn’t the fact that they lost yet again to Chelsea, without putting up much of a challenge. No, it was the fact that since returning to the elite European stage at the beginning of last season, the seven-time winners of the Champions League have won only two games from 10 attempts.

That’s simply not good enough.

A case could be argued in Milan’s defence last season, considering the nature of their group. Drawn in a tough group against Liverpool, Atletico Madrid and Porto, the odds were stacked against Milan to get through.

Many would’ve fancied them to beat Porto home and away, yet in the end it didn’t work out that way. Milan’s only victory came away in Madrid, they were easily swatted aside by Liverpool’s B-side and Porto took four points from them in their two back-to-back encounters.

Milan finished bottom of the group, not even dropping into the Europa League. In hindsight, that did them a favour, as they focused solely on winning their first league title for 11 years, with the distraction of Europe void.

This season Milan were supposed to do better. Bolstered by their experience from last season, in addition to new signings such as Charles De Ketelaere and Divock Origi, this season Milan would do better, win more games, improve in Europe.

So far that hasn’t been the case.

After four games they’ve still only won once — a 3-1 home win against Dinamo Zagreb — and were humbled twice by Chelsea, with the latest game a show of just how behind Milan are in comparison to some of the best sides in Europe.

Yes, the second Chelsea game was conditioned by the somewhat harsh red card for Fikayo Tomori in the opening 20 minutes, but it was his initial mistake, allowing Mason Mount to get goal side, that forced Tomori into making the contact in the first place.

From there, Olivier Giroud missed a glorious chance that nine times out of 10 he would’ve put away. Yet this was the 10^th time, and his header flashed over the bar, and from there Milan were as good as done. They offered little in attack and already had the mind set of using the red card as justification for a mediocre performance, despite being in front of 75,000 bristling Milanisti.

Chelsea essentially coasted 5-0 over the two games and, it leaves Milan needing to win both of their remaining games against Zagreb and Red Bull Salzburg in order to qualify for the knockout rounds. If Milan are to grow as a club and bring in more revenue, they simply need to win both games. Destiny is still in their own hands, but whether they can actually win both games, particularly the difficult away trip to Zagreb, is up for debate.

And it speaks to a wider concern that many of Milan’s players have reached their ceiling. Like in all facets of life, there are levels and for many of this Milan team, playing in the Champions League is simply a step too far for some of them.

Milan’s strategy of finding young talent and building them only works to a point, there must come a time when they sign ready-made stars. Moreover, for every Rafael Leao, who is now developing into a major star, there’s a Rade Krunic, Junior Messias, Alexis Saelemaekers and Fode Ballo-Toure, players who can get the job done in Serie A, can’t make the step up into the Champions League.

Even if Milan do make it through to the round of 16, only a kind draw would see them venture even further. Quality signings are needed next summer, otherwise there’s a great chance of Milan stagnating, and then they could lose some of their best players like Leao, Theo Hernandez and Tomori.