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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Nicky Bandini

Maldini’s ghost hangs over uninspiring Milan as top-four place slips from view

AC Milan fans hold up a Paolo Maldini shirt inside the stadium before the Serie A match between AC Milan and Atalanta
A pair of Milan fans attempt a protest by holding up a Paolo Maldini shirt in front of the section where executives sit, but stewards ushered them away. Photograph: Daniele Mascolo/Reuters

There were more than seven minutes left to play, plus injury time, in a crucial end-of-season game, yet San Siro was already half empty. Milan’s Ultras had deserted the Curva Sud to prepare a post-game protest, but even the less organised, more forgiving parts of the club’s fanbase could not be bothered to stay until the end of another humiliating defeat.

Their team was losing 3-0 to Atalanta and it hardly even felt a surprise. With this loss, inevitable as it now appeared, the Rossoneri had collectedseven points from their past eight games. Only three teams in Serie A had done worse over the same stretch. Two of those – Verona, and Pisa – have been relegated. The third, Lecce, are perilously close to joining them.

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