MILAN, Italy (AFP) — Two of Italy’s top Serie A sides, AC Milan and Juventus, tightened their grip on Champions League qualification spots after picking up critical wins on a pivotal Sunday of domestic league play. With five fixtures left on the 2024-25 season calendar, the clubs capitalized on dropped points from their closest rivals to move closer to securing a spot in Europe’s most prestigious club competition next season.
AC Milan earned a tight 1-0 away win over Hellas Verona, with French midfielder Adrien Rabiot notching the match’s only goal just past the half-hour mark. Rabiot, who has enjoyed a strong goalscoring run this season with six league strikes to his name, won back possession in the center of the park before combining with star winger Rafael Leao to slot a calm finish past Verona’s goalkeeper. The contest was largely uneventful outside of the decisive finish, with neither side generating many clear-cut scoring chances. Following the win, Rabiot emphasized that the three points were the only priority on the day, even as he acknowledged his side’s underperformance. “The important thing is winning and getting the points we need to achieve our objectives, but we made a lot of mistakes today. We could have played a lot better,” Rabiot said, adding that the squad remains fully focused on locking in their top-four finish.
That victory extended Milan’s advantage over fifth-placed Como and sixth-placed Roma to eight points, putting the 19-time Serie A champions in a commanding position to hold onto their second-place spot. It comes after a full continental break from European competition this season, following the club’s catastrophic 2023-24 campaign that saw them miss out on all European qualification entirely. That poor run led to the return of experienced manager Massimiliano Allegri to the dugout last summer, and the 58-year-old has since turned the club’s fortunes around dramatically. Allegri reaffirmed his commitment to Milan following the weekend’s win, ruling himself out of the running for the vacant senior Italy men’s national team head coaching role. “No-one has contacted me (from the Italian Football Federation), and all my thoughts are on Milan: we’ve started something together and we’ll continue it together,” Allegri said, confirming he had already begun planning for the 2025-26 season with club management.
Juventus, for their part, secured a comfortable 2-0 home win over Bologna at the Allianz Stadium, putting them three points behind fourth-place AC Milan in the race for the final automatic Champions League spot. The Old Lady benefited from disappointing results from their competitors: Como suffered an unexpected upset loss at Sassuolo on Friday, while Roma played out a goalless draw with Atalanta on Saturday evening, allowing Juventus to chip into the gap between themselves and the top four.
Before kickoff, the Juventus crowd paid tribute to former club goalkeeper Alexander Manninger, who passed away Thursday at age 48 following a tragic car-train collision near his home in Austria. Ex-Juve stars Gianluigi Buffon, Leonardo Bonucci, and Giorgio Chiellini laid a wreath of flowers on the center spot before the match, and fans applauded for a full minute and chanted Manninger’s name in honor of his four years at the club between 2008 and 2012, where he made 40 first-team appearances.
On the pitch, Canadian striker Jonathan David opened the scoring with a glancing header from a Pierre Kalulu cross in the first half. The goal marked David’s first for the club since early February, ending a two-month goal drought. Khephren Thuram doubled Juve’s advantage just 12 minutes into the second half, nodding home a perfectly placed cross from Weston McKennie for his fourth league goal of the season. Bologna came close to pulling a goal back shortly after Thuram’s strike, as winger Jonathan Rowe hit the post from point-blank range off a low cross from Nadir Zortea, but it would prove the visitor’s only clear chance of the match. The result leaves Bologna in eighth place, 10 points adrift of the European qualifying spots with little chance of climbing into contention before the end of the season.
For Juventus, the win keeps the club on track to hit the target that manager Luciano Spalletti was given when he was hired in October to replace sacked coach Igor Tudor: a top-four finish and Champions League qualification. Spalletti praised his side’s progress after the match, saying “We’re on the right track. Every time we play I see something new from my players, all I can do is compliment them.”
For Hellas Verona, the loss marked their fifth consecutive defeat, leaving the club stuck at the bottom of the Serie A table. It all but confirms their relegation to Serie B next season, as they sit 10 points behind 17th-placed Cremonese, who hold the final spot above the drop zone after a 0-0 draw with Torino in the day’s early kickoff.