AC Milan’s rebuilding plan needs to include winning the Coppa Italia

As Italian soccer resumes with the Coppa Italia, AC Milan find themselves in the position of needing to win the trophy to show they’re successfully rebuilding.

The Coppa Italia semifinals this weekend will officially bring to an end the three-month coronavirus pause that brought Italian soccer to a halt. It will also be the chance for AC Milan, a storied club that has fallen on hard times in recent years, to win a trophy.

The Rossoneri have been in the process of rebuilding for the past few years, but have very little to show for it. By winning the league cup, AC Milan can show the world they are back on the path to success.

It won’t be easy. AC Milan face Juventus on Saturday in their second-leg match. The teams played to a 1-1 draw in the opening leg back in March before the pandemic struck Europe and forced stay-at-home orders and national lockdowns.

In 2017, media mogul Silvio Berlusconi sold the team to a Chinese-led consortium. Despite spending $250 million that year on players, AC Milan have struggled. Failure to compete for the league title or a spot in the Champions League has proven illusive. This season, the team brought back Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the hope that he can trigger a rebirth.

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The reality is that Juventus, led by Cristiano Ronaldo, are just too strong. That doesn’t mean AC Milan can’t get past them and land in the final. The other semifinal features Inter Milan and Napoli. The first leg ended in a 1-0 Napoli win.

AC Milan, meanwhile, face some adversity in their quest. Ibrahimovic and two other players, Theo Hernandez and Samu Castillejo, will miss the game through suspension. That will force coach Stefano Pioli to rotate his squad and tinker with his 4-2-2 formation. at the same time, AC Milan midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu even heaped praise on Ibra, saying the Swedish striker, who has four goals in 10 games this season, has “no ego.”

“He is not a new player for Milan. He is a world star and a very experienced player,” he recently told beIN SPORTS. “He is our star. He has contributed to us in every respect – with his experience, game ambition, mentality, helping very well out on the field.”

AC Milan are also unhappy with the way league officials have formulated the schedule, hoping the Coppa Italia final would have been played at the end of the season and not on June 17, just days after the semifinals.

“We appreciate the value of being able to offer fans quality matches after three months of lockdown but, from a sporting perspective, we find it questionable to compete for a trophy as prestigious as the Coppa Italia with two matches in three days and with the team playing after over three months of inactivity,” the team said in a statement.

Nonetheless, this tight schedule to award a trophy favors no one, meaning AC Milan have a real chance here at some silverware. Should they get past Juventus, AC Milan and Ibrahimovic would have a shot at silverware in what can only be defined one of the most unusual seasons in history. It would be the team’s first trophy since the Italian Super Cup in 2016. AC Milan has won 18 league titles and is a five-time Coppa Italia winner.

Can AC Milan win another trophy? It remains to be seen. What would lifting the Coppa Italia mean? It would be a sign that AC Milan’s years of futility have come to an end and that this is a club once again capable winning games that matter.