Daily Times

TURIN: AC Milan secured a place in the Champions League next season with a 1-0 victory at Juventus as a goal from Olivier Giroud ensured a top-four finish in Serie A on Sunday. Fourth-placed Milan on 67 points hold a six-point advantage over fifth-placed Atalanta heading into the final round of matches, while Juventus sit seventh with 59. Milan join rivals Inter Milan and Lazio in guaranteeing their places in next season’s Champions League as top-four finishers along with Serie A champions Napoli. There is still a possibility for five Italian teams to participate in next season’s competition if AS Roma beat Sevilla in the Europa League final on Wednesday.

Milan manager Stefano Pioli expressed his relief that his team had finally confirmed their participation in Europe’s elite club competition. “Clearly, the Champions League gave us much more than we expected and then we felt sad to go out in the semi-final against Inter, but our journey there was more than anyone saw coming,” Pioli told DAZN. “At the same time, we did not do as well as expected in Serie A, but we are in the Champions League for the third season running, I don’t know how many years it had been since that happened.”

Juve, who were docked 10 points on Monday by an Italian soccer court in a case centred on their transfer dealings, started the match aggressively, knowing that only a win was good enough to maintain their slim hopes of securing a top-four finish. Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri made changes to his usual starting team as the club’s top scorer Dusan Vlahovic was sidelined with a thigh injury. Angel Di Maria went close to giving the hosts the lead midway through the first half when he received a pass from Moise Kean near the penalty spot but sent his effort wide.

Milan took the lead five minutes before the break when Giroud steered home a header inside the box. In stoppage time, Danilo went close to finding an equaliser for the hosts, but his close-range volley was stopped on the goal-line by Milan’s Pierre Kalulu. As a tired-looking Juventus side failed to find an equaliser the match fizzled out accompanied by boos from the home fans.