In the league, Milan remained steadily in the middle-upper area of the table and closed the first half of the season in fifth position, with 18 points. During the second half of the season, Cesare Maldini, who had already joined Rocco on the bench in December starting from the ninth round (December 16, 1973), became the team's sole technical manager and held this role until at the beginning of April when Giovanni Trapattoni took over. This was the first experience as manager for Trapattoni, who retired from football just two seasons earlier. Milan went through a series of negative results (including five defeats in a row) which condemned them to the 7th place in the final standings, totaling 30 points, with 11 wins, 8 draws and 11 defeats.
In January, the Rossoneri, holders of the Cup Winners' Cup, faced the reigning European Cup champions Ajax on the first edition of the UEFA Super Cup. After a 1–0 win in the first leg at San Siro, with a goal of Luciano Chiarugi, Milan were beaten 6–0 in Amsterdam by the Dutch team, which thus won the trophy.
In the Coppa Italia Milan, as holder of the trophy, started from the second round, where they were eliminated in a group that included Bologna, Inter and Atalanta, after finishing in third place with five points, as a result of two wins (with Atalanta), a draw (with Bologna) and three defeats.
In the Cup Winners' Cup Milan qualified for the final after eliminating the Yugoslavs of Dinamo Zagreb in the round of 32 (3–1 victory in the first leg in Milan and 1–0 in the second leg in Zagreb), in the round of 16 the Austrians of Rapid Vienna (0–0 at San Siro and 2–0 away victory), in the quarter-finals the Greeks of PAOK (3–0 at home and 2–2 in Thessaloniki) and in the semi-finals the West Germans of Borussia Mönchengladbach (2–0 home win and 1–0 away defeat).[9] In the final, played in Rotterdam on 8 May 1974, Milan, with Trapattoni on the bench, faced the East Germans of Magdeburg, which won the match 2–0 thanks to a own goal by Enrico Lanzi in the first half and goal by Wolfgang Seguin in the second.[2]
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.
