GdS: Fonseca ‘full steam ahead’ – the team are with him in search for consistency | OneFootball

If tonight’s game against Club Brugge is not a must-win then it is very close to it for Paulo Fonseca and AC Milan, who need to get the ball rolling in the Champions League.

As La Gazzetta dello Sport write, failing to win tonight would make qualifying directly for the Champions League round of 16 (finishing in the top eight) very difficult and would also complicate access to the playoffs.

Beyond all else, a failure to win against the team that are fourth in the Belgian league would be disheartening for the international image of Milan, because a club with seven Champions League titles cannot flounder at the bottom between Sturm Graz and Slovan Bratislava.

It is also crucial because a trip to the Santiago Bernabeu to face Real Madrid follows that, so Milan cannot risk finding themselves with one point or remaining at zero after four games. Tonight they must move up the standings with a three-point haul, to show up in the Spanish capital with less pressure.

The good news is that the victory against Udinese was important because a large part of the team showed they were on his side. What better opportunity than a numerical inferiority to given up on your own coach? No one did it on Saturday at San Siro after Tijjani Reijnders’ red card.

In fact, everyone put a little extra effort into defending the leader. The majority of the dressing room ‘is with the coach, the rebels – Leao and Hernandez the leaders – seem rejected’ as per La Gazzetta. The storm is not over, however, because Fonseca must give continuity to the results.

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The victories against Inter and Lecce were followed by the defeats against Bayer Leverkusen and Fiorentina, and Milan fell into crisis again. The Brugge game will give us the measure of the reliability of the three points against Udinese and of Fonseca’s hold on the moods and psychology of the group.

Fonseca doesn’t have a great relationship with the Champions League: seven wins, five draws and 10 defeats in the 22 games he has played as a coach so far. The peak was in the 2017-18 group stage, when his Shakhtar Donetsk side defeated Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.

They were then eliminated in the round of 16 by Eusebio Di Francesco’s Roma and Fonseca has never gone beyond that round of 16 in the Champions League. The danger is that with Milan he won’t even get to the round of 16. If it goes like that, it would be a failure, because this team is stronger than it has shown so far.