Milan giants are Champions League contenders but may miss top-four cut

T he Champions League quarter-finals are upon us and, for the first time in 17 years, there are three Italian sides among the final eight. Before anyone gets carried away contemplating brave new eras, they might consider the growing possibility that two of those teams might not even qualify for next season’s tournament.

Inter have won none of their last six games and slipped out of Serie A’s top four after drawing 1-1 with Salernitana on Good Friday. Milan clobbered Napoli 4-0 this month but otherwise have taken two points from four matches. They could only manage a goalless stalemate at home to Empoli later the same evening.

The Rossoneri paid a price for overconfidence. Stefano Pioli swapped out five starters, including the entire front three – Rafael Leão, Olivier Giroud and Brahim Díaz making way for Ante Rebic, Divock Origi and Alexis Saelemaekers. Milan wound up taking 23 shots to Empoli’s two yet barely forced a save out of the opposition goalkeeper after the 15th minute.

It was a similar, yet different, story for their neighbours. The Nerazzurri have lately turned not scoring goals into an art form. They took the lead against Salernitana in the sixth minute, Robin Gosens converting Romelu Lukaku’s flick beautifully, but after that it was a masterclass in how to combine everything but the finish.

There were stepovers, no-look passes and backheel volleys to lead us anywhere but the back of the net. Point-blank headers were scrambled off the line or crashed off the underside of the crossbar. Memo Ochoa, keeping goal for Salernitana, summoned that version of himself that appears every four years for Mexico at World Cups: springing, leaping, soaring to make saves he had no right to make.

All of which set up Antonio