# 1996–97 AC Milan season

During the 1996–97 season Milan Associazione Calcio competed in Serie A, Coppa Italia, UEFA Champions League and Supercoppa.

## Summary

Milan Associazione Calcio fell into pieces once Fabio Capello left his job to join Real Madrid. The new organisation with Óscar Tabárez as technical director completely miscued its signings, with neither Jesper Blomqvist, Edgar Davids, Christophe Dugarry or Michael Reiziger being successful. After a Supercoppa Italiana defeat against Fiorentina at home at the San Siro, a 2–3 loss at Piacenza for the league cost the Uruguayan his position. Tabarez was replaced by former championship winning coach Arrigo Sacchi, the change did not happen and days later due to a 2–1 defeat to Rosenborg at home in the Champions League the team was not qualified to Quarterfinals. The Rossoneri eventually finished 11th managed to save the reigning champions' contract in Serie A by just six points.
The miserable season also prompted captain Franco Baresi to end his active career, with Milan retiring the #6 shirt in his honour.

## Squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 1 | GK | ITA | Sebastiano Rossi |
| 2 | DF | ITA | Christian Panucci |
| 3 | DF | ITA | Paolo Maldini |
| 4 | MF | ITA | Demetrio Albertini |
| 5 | DF | ITA | Filippo Galli |
| 6 | DF | ITA | Franco Baresi (captain) |
| 8 | MF | FRA | Marcel Desailly |
| 9 | FW | LBR | George Weah |
| 10 | MF | YUG | Dejan Savicevic |
| 11 | DF | ITA | Alessandro Costacurta |
| 13 | DF | ITA | Francesco Coco |
| 14 | DF | NED | Michael Reiziger |
| 15 | MF | ITA | Massimo Ambrosini |
| 16 | MF | ITA | Tomas Locatelli |
| 17 | GK | ITA | Gabriele Aldegani |
| 18 | FW | ITA | Roberto Baggio |
| 19 | FW | FRA | Christophe Dugarry |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 20 | MF | CRO | Zvonimir Boban |
| 21 | DF | ITA | Mauro Tassotti (vice-captain) |
| 22 | MF | NED | Edgar Davids |
| 23 | FW | ITA | Marco Simone |
| 24 | MF | ITA | Stefano Eranio |
| 25 | GK | ITA | Angelo Pagotto |
| 27 | FW | ITA | Luca Saudati |
| 28 | MF | ITA | Matteo Pelatti |
| 29 | DF | ITA | Pietro Vierchowod |
| 31 | MF | ITA | Vincenzo Maiolo |
| 32 | DF | ITA | Daniele Daino |
| 34 | MF | SWE | Jesper Blomqvist |
| 35 | DF | YUG | Miodrag Vukotic |
| 36 | DF | ITA | Matteo Placida |
| 38 | DF | ITA | Alberto Comazzi |
| 39 | GK | ITA | Massimo Prete |
| 40 | MF | ITA | Massimiliano Grego |
| 42 | FW | ITA | Massimo Maccarone |

### Transfers

In :
| Pos. | Name | from | Type |
| MF | Edgar Davids | AFC Ajax | Free |
| DF | Michael Reiziger | AFC Ajax | Free |
| GK | Angelo Pagotto | UC Sampdoria | €300,000 |
| FW | Christophe Dugarry | Bordeaux | €1,800,000 |
| DF | Pietro Vierchowod | AC Perugia | €500,000 |
| MF | Francesco De Francesco | AC Prato |
| DF | Giuseppe Cardone | Lucchese | loan ended |
| MF | Francesco Cozza | Lucchese | loan ended |
| DF | Roberto Lorenzini | Piacenza Calcio | loan ended |
| DF | Stefano Nava | Padova | loan ended |
Out :
| Pos. | Name | To | Type |
| MF | Patrick Vieira | Arsenal FC | £3,5m[3] |
| FW | Paolo Di Canio | Celtic Glasgow | £2m |
| MF | Paulo Futre | West Ham United | |
| GK | Mario Ielpo | Genoa CFC | |
| MF | Gianluigi Lentini | Atalanta BC | |
| DF | Giuseppe Cardone | Bologna FC | |
| DF | Gianluca Sordo | AC Reggiana | |
| DF | Stefano Nava | Servette FC | |
| DF | Roberto Lorenzini | Lucchese | |
| MF | Francesco Cozza | Cagliari Calcio | loan |

#### Winter

In :
| Pos. | Name | from | Type |
| MF | Jesper Blomqvist | IFK Goteborg | U$6,44m |
| DF | Miodrag Vukotic | FK Vojvodina | €500,000 |
Out :
| Pos. | Name | To | Type |
| DF | Christian Panucci | Real Madrid | £10m |
| DF | Filippo Galli | AC Reggiana | |
| MF | Tomas Locatelli | Udinese | £2m |
| FW | Luca Saudati | FC Lugano | loan |
| MF | Francesco De Francesco | Prato | loan |

### Kits

| Home | Away | Third | Third alt. | Fourth | Goalkeeper |

## Competitions
### Serie A
#### League table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| 9 | Fiorentina | 34 | 10 | 15 | 9 | 46 | 41 | +5 | 45 |
| 10 | Atalanta | 34 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 44 | 46 | −2 | 44 |
| 11 | Milan | 34 | 11 | 10 | 13 | 43 | 45 | −2 | 43 |
| 12 | Roma | 34 | 10 | 11 | 13 | 46 | 47 | −1 | 41 |
| 13 | Napoli | 34 | 9 | 14 | 11 | 38 | 45 | −7 | 41 |
* ↑ Roma finished ahead of Napoli on Goal difference: Roma -1, Napoli -7.

#### Results summary

| Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away |
Last updated: 26 May 2019. Source: Competitive matches

#### Results by round

| Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 |
| Ground | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | A | H | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H |
| Result | W | L | W | W | L | W | L | D | D | D | L | W | W | L | L | W | D | L | L | W | L | D | D | W | W | L | L | D | D | W | D | D | L | L |
| Position | 1 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 9 | 6 | 7 | 10 | 12 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 8 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 11 |

#### Matches
### Coppa Italia

Second Round
Eightfinals
Quarterfinals

### UEFA Champions League
#### Group stage

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Porto | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 4 | +8 | 16 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 | Rosenborg | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 11 | −4 | 9 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 3 | Milan | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 13 | 11 | +2 | 7 | |
| 4 | IFK Göteborg | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 13 | −6 | 3 | |

## Statistics
### Appearances and goals

| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Total | Total | Serie A | Serie A | Coppa | Coppa | Champions League | Champions League |
| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| 1 | GK | ITA | Rossi | 35 | -47 | 26 | -35 | 3 | -1 | 6 | -11 |
| 11 | DF | ITA | Costacurta | 38 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| 29 | DF | ITA | Vierchowod | 18 | 1 | 16 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 6 | DF | ITA | Baresi | 29 | 0 | 26 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 3 | DF | ITA | Maldini | 35 | 1 | 26 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| 24 | MF | ITA | Eranio | 29 | 2 | 18+3 | 2 | 3+1 | 0 | 1+3 | 0 |
| 4 | MF | ITA | Albertini | 36 | 9 | 27+2 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
| 8 | MF | GHA | Desailly | 37 | 1 | 29 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| 20 | MF | CRO | Boban | 35 | 2 | 26+2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
| 9 | FW | LBR | Weah | 35 | 16 | 25+3 | 13 | 1+1 | 0 | 5 | 3 |
| 23 | FW | ITA | Simone | 32 | 10 | 18+5 | 4 | 2+1 | 2 | 4+2 | 4 |
| 25 | GK | ITA | Pagotto | 11 | -11 | 8+1 | -10 | 2 | -1 | 0 | 0 |
| 18 | FW | ITA | Baggio | 33 | 9 | 16+7 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3+2 | 1 |
| 34 | MF | SWE | Blomqvist | 19 | 1 | 13+6 | 1 |
| 13 | DF | ITA | Coco | 18 | 0 | 11+3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 |
| 19 | FW | FRA | Dugarry | 26 | 6 | 10+11 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1+2 | 1 |
| 10 | MF | YUG | Savicevic | 21 | 1 | 10+7 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 22 | MF | NED | Davids | 23 | 1 | 9+6 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 3+1 | 1 |
| 14 | DF | NED | Reiziger | 17 | 0 | 7+3 | 0 | 3+1 | 0 | 2+1 | 0 |
| 15 | MF | ITA | Ambrosini | 18 | 0 | 4+7 | 0 | 2+1 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 21 | DF | ITA | Tassotti | 12 | 0 | 2+8 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 |
| 38 | DF | ITA | Comazzi | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 32 | DF | ITA | Daino | 6 | 0 | 0+5 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 |
| 28 | FW | ITA | Pelatti | 2 | 0 | 0+2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 31 | MF | ITA | Maiolo | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 16 | MF | ITA | De Francesco | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 |
| 35 | DF | YUG | Vukotic | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 36 | DF | ITA | Placida | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 27 | MF | ITA | Corrent | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 40 | MF | ITA | Grego | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 42 | FW | ITA | Maccarone | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 39 | GK | ITA | Prete | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 17 | GK | ITA | Aldegani |
| Players transferred out during the season ||||||||||||
| 2 | DF | ITA | Panucci | 20 | 0 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5+1 | 0 |
| 5 | DF | ITA | Galli | 4 | 0 | 1+1 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 16 | MF | ITA | Locatelli | 10 | 2 | 3+2 | 0 | 1+2 | 1 | 1+1 | 1 |
| 26 | FW | ITA | Saudati | 3 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | 1+1 | 0 |
* Source: http://calcio-seriea.net/presenze/1996/1112/

### Clean sheets

| Rank | No. | Pos | Nat | Name | Serie A | Supercoppa | Coppa Italia | UEFA CL | Total |
| 1 | 1 | GK | | Sebastiano Rossi | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
| 2 | 25 | GK | | Angelo Pagotto | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| Totals | Totals | Totals | Totals | Totals | 9 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 12 |

### Disciplinary record

| No. | Pos | Name | Serie A | Serie A | Serie A | Supercoppa | Supercoppa | Coppa Italia | UEFA CL | Total | Total | Total |
| 20 | MF | Zvonimir Boban | 6 | | 1 | 1 | | 1 | 2 | 11 | | 2 |
| 8 | MF | Marcel Desailly | 8 | | | | 1 | 1 | | 11 | | 1 |
| 11 | DF | Alessandro Costacurta | 9 | 1 | | | | | | 10 | 2 | |
| 4 | MF | Demetrio Albertini | 6 | 1 | | | | 1 | 2 | 6 | 0 | |
| 24 | DF | Stefano Eranio | 5 | | | 1 | | 1 | 1 | 6 | 1 | |
| 3 | DF | Paolo Maldini | 5 | | | 1 | | 1 | | 5 | 1 | |
| 19 | FW | Christophe Dugarry | 3 | | | 1 | | | 2 | 6 | | 1 |
| 1 | GK | Sebastiano Rossi | 4 | | | | | | 0 | 4 | | |
| 2 | DF | Christian Panucci | 5 | | 1 | | | | | 4 | | 0 |
| 29 | DF | Pietro Vierchowod | 4 | | | | | | 0 | 4 | | |
| 18 | FW | Roberto Baggio | 3 | | | | | | | 3 | | |
| 10 | MF | Dejan Savicevic | 3 | | | | | | | 3 | | 1 |
| 23 | FW | Marco Simone | 2 | | | | | | | 2 | | |
| 15 | MF | Massimo Ambrosini | 2 | | | | | | | 2 | | |
| 34 | MF | Jesper Blomqvist | 1 | | | | | | | 1 | | 1 |
| 13 | DF | Francesco Coco | 1 | | | | | | | 1 | | |
| 38 | DF | Alberto Comazzi | 1 | | | | | | | 1 | | |
| 32 | DF | Daniele Daino | 1 | | | | | | | 1 | | |
| 16 | FW | Tomas Locatelli | 1 | | | | | | | 1 | | |
| 14 | DF | Michael Reiziger | 1 | | | | | | | 1 | | |
| 21 | DF | Mauro Tassotti | 1 | | | | | | | 1 | | |
Players in italics left the team during the season.