The red and black half of Milan is still celebrating as the rossoneri pulled off the Great Escape and avoided relegation by winning their play-off. The drop was looking nailed on after the first half of the season as Milan were rock bottom of the Championship with just one point. Despite the pundits on the AG podcast consistently predicting his team was doomed, head coach Big B never lost faith with his team, and backed by their fanatical supporters, they finally hit some form, started picking up wins, particularly at home, and pulled themselves out of the automatic relegation places to set up a play-off against niwintz and his Lyon side.
The pundits were still writing off Milan's chances, as Lyon had taken 4 points off them earlier in the season. In those games, the Italian side had struggled to contain Lyons pacey counter attacking and accuracy from long shots, and conceded 5 goals over the two regular season games. The play-off game looked like it would go the same way early on when Lyon attacked quickly and with the defence sitting off wary of his pace, Traore struck one from distance and niwintz was 1-0 up.
The Milan team at the start of the season would've buckled after that start, but they have more confidence now and came straight back, with Cristiano feeding the diminutive winger Fraser who floated in a cross that was met beutifully on the volley by Bifouma, giving the Lyon keeper no chance, 1-1.
The game remained finely poised with end to end action until the 62nd minute, when Cristiano broke past his marker and fired in a powerful shot that Sara could only parry. Bifouma was first to the loose ball and calmly slid it in from a tight angle to give Milan the lead. Despite Lyons best efforts, the rossoneri defence was holding strong and the result was put beyond doubt with 10 minutes to go. Piatti played a nice one-two with Bifouma to wrong foot the defence and lashed an unstoppable shot from from the edge of the box that the keeper barely saw to give a final result of 3-1 to Milan.
Cue scenes of delirium on the Curva Sud, and at the final whistle, the manager took his players over to the crowd to salute them. Big B said "We're in the Championship again next season, and we wouldn't have done it with out this great support. Grazie mille!"