End of the race. The Milan by Conceicao, barring any sensational twists, said goodbye to dreams of fourth place with the defeat of Bologna, a 2-1 that relaunches Italiano's red and blues, climbed to within 5 points of Juventus and with the direct clash still to be played. The Devils, on the other hand, remain 8 points behind and with four teams ahead, but above all they give the impression of having given up, almost elimination from the Champions League had drained the residual energy and motivation. Conceiçao, increasingly resigned to his fate, will have to invent something to at least defend his dignity, otherwise the remaining twelve games (plus the two Coppa Italia games against Inter) would become a real agony.
Bologna – Milan 2-1: Leao gives the Rossoneri hope, Castro and Ndoye sign the turnaround
Bologna and Milan had been waiting for this match for four months, aware that the result could have changed their prospects for fourth place. Only Italiano's team was smiling, while Conceiçao can only deal with his fifth defeat in two months on the Rossoneri bench, confirming a decidedly unlucky marriage. The match started immediately with Musah serving a perfect ball to Gimenez, but the Mexican kicked badly on the volley with his left foot, wasting a golden opportunity. Not even a minute later, the hosts came close to scoring: an action that led to a deflection by Thiaw, who, like in Turin, risked fooling Maignan, but the Milan goalkeeper managed to save. Italiano's team appeared more lively and tried to continuously exploit the counterattacks of Ndoye and Dominguez, but just before the break came the dramatic turn of events: Maignan launched a long ball, Gimenez headed it to Leao, who beat Skorupski and gave his team the lead (43'). Bologna did not let themselves be discouraged by the goal conceded, indeed they reacted promptly already at the beginning of the second half: a free kick from the right, deflected by Fabbian (with his arm, but the VAR deemed it regular as it was attached to the body) and Castro, from two steps away, did not miss, scoring the 1-1 (48'). This goal gave new energy to the Emilians, who took courage and began to push forward, increasing their territorial dominance. In the 80th minute Italiano played the Odgaard and Cambiaghi cards and the move proved to be a winning one: the former Empoli striker, with a perfect cross from the left, found Ndoye who anticipated Pavlovic and scored the goal of the definitive comeback (82'). Milan tried to catch up, but did not go beyond a couple of unpretentious scrums. The disappointment was too strong to react, especially on the pitch of a strong and launched opponent. Italiano climbs to 44 points and overtakes both Milan and Fiorentina, while Conceiçao remains at 41, increasingly detached from a Champions League zone that is now almost utopian.
Furia Conceiçao: “Their irregular goals! My future? I’m packing my bags and leaving”
“There was a blatant handball on their first goal and on the second I saw that the ball had gone out of bounds,” he thundered. Conceiçao -. We should have done more, but all the negative episodes for us become positive for the opponent. We have to understand what we did wrong, even if we also did good things. There were mistakes by us and also by another team (the referee's one? Ed) which then proved to be decisive. It's not just the referee who is to blame for this defeat, I put myself first, but these are things that always happen. Every day people talk about my situation and it's not right. I'm calm because the situation is simple: if they tell me I'm no longer needed I'll pack my bags and go away, I don't want even a single euro more. I have almost 100 games in the Champions League, but every day they enjoy talking about me. I hear so much nastiness as if I came from nowhere, and yet in 5 years I have always eliminated Italian teams that were stronger than my Porto... I need a bit of respect as a person, excuse my outburst".
