AC Milan's season unravelled in the cruellest fashion imaginable at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza on Sunday evening — a final-day capitulation against bottom-half Cagliari that will haunt the Rossoneri all summer. What began as a straightforward path to Champions League football became a catastrophe, as the Sardinians swept aside their hosts 2-1 to inflict what the club's hierarchy have termed an "unequivocal failure".
The scale of this collapse cannot be overstated. Milan were 1-0 up inside two minutes, courtesy of Alexis Saelemaekers' finish from Santiago Gimenez's assist, and dominated the opening exchanges at their spiritual home. Yet within 20 minutes, the entire tenor of the match had shifted. Gennaro Borrelli levelled for Cagliari on 20, meeting Yerry Mina's cross, and the visitors — a side with nothing left to play for — suddenly sensed an opening. Possession statistics would later tell the story: Milan had 65% of the ball but managed just three shots on goal, a damning indictment of their creative bankruptcy when it mattered most.
The second half proved even more calamitous. After 56 minutes, Strahinja Pavlović was cautioned for a reckless challenge, and just one minute later — on the hour mark — Juan Rodríguez swept home what would prove the decisive blow to send Cagliari in front. The goal arrived with few warning signs, a sucker-punch that left the Meazza in stunned silence. Milan's frustrations boiled over two minutes later when goalkeeper Mike Maignan was booked for dissent, a telling sign of the chaos engulfing the home dressing room. With Cagliari seemingly content to sit deep and soak up pressure, Milan poured bodies forward — 25 shots in total, yet only 10 on target — but could find no way through a resolute Sardinian rearguard.
Maignan emerged as Milan's standout performer, rated 9.7, and produced a string of commanding saves to keep the scoreline respectable — though even his excellence could not mask the tactical ineptitude that surrounded him. Borrelli, the Cagliari goalscorer, rated 8.3, posed constant threats with four shots on goal and capped an assured display. Saelemaekers, despite netting early on, could do little else of note as Milan's wide play dried up entirely.
The fallout has been immediate and seismic. According to BBC Sport and Reuters reporting, Massimiliano Allegri has been sacked by Milan's ownership — Redbird Capital Partners — who declared this season a failure despite the club's mandate to "establish Champions League football". Christian Pulisic and his teammates will now compete in the Europa League next season, a bitter pill after leading the table for much of the campaign. The American's future at the San Siro now hangs in considerable doubt, with ESPN reporting that major squad overhaul looms.
This was not the crescendo Milan needed. On the final day of a 38-game season, they surrendered Champions League football — and quite possibly their manager — to a Cagliari outfit with absolutely nothing to play for. It ranks among Italian football's most shocking final-day collapses, a humiliation that will define the entire campaign and trigger a summer of reckoning at Milan's boardroom.