1978–79 AC Milan season

During the 1978–1979 season, Milan Associazione Calcio competed in Serie A, Coppa Italia and UEFA Cup.

Summary
The summer of 1978 saw the signings of Walter De Vecchi, Walter Novellino and Stefano Chiodi, while Giuseppe Sabadini, Maurizio Turone and Egidio Calloni left Milan after a long spell at the club. The 1978-79 season started with the elimination in the first round of the Coppa Italia, where Milan closed group 4 in second place with five points, thanks to two victories against Lecce and Foggia in the first two days, the defeat against SPAL in the third and the draw in the fourth and final match with Catanzaro, who qualified for the quarter-finals with a 2-point lead over the Rossoneri.

In the league, Milan achieved four wins and a draw in the first five games, taking the lead in the standings with nine points. In the following match, the Rossoneri lost at home to the reigning Italian champions Juventus and left the top of the rankings to Perugia. The Umbrians were joined by the Rossoneri two rounds later and passed on matchday 11; Milan closed the first half of the season at the top of the table, with 25 points with Perugia three lengths behind. In the second half of the season, the dualism with the Umbrian team continued; Milan arrived on the matchday 25 against Perugia with a two-point lead which they maintained thanks to the 1-1 draw. On May 6, 1979, on the penultimate game of the championship, Milan could celebrate the conquest of their long-awaited tenth Scudetto, that of the first stella, thanks to a goalless draw with Bologna. Perugia (runner-up) ended the championship undefeated, first among the Italian teams to succeed in such an achievement (equaled by the Rossoneri who won the Serie A in 1991-1992 and by Juventus in 2011-2012).

In the UEFA Cup the Rossoneri eliminated the Czechoslovaks of Lokomotíva Košice on penalties in the round of 64 (1-0 home win in the first leg and defeat with the same result in the second leg in Košice) and the Bulgarians of Levski Spartak in the round of 32 (1-1 in Sofia and 3-0 in Milan). In the round of 16, Milan faced English side Manchester City who, after a 2-2 draw at San Siro, eliminated the Rossoneri and qualified for the next round thanks to a 3-0 victory at Maine Road.

At the end of the season, captain Gianni Rivera retired from football, after 19 seasons with the club in which he played 658 matches (a record at the time) scoring 164 goals. Nils Liedholm also left Milan to move to Roma, due to contractual disagreements with the management.

One of the most iconic scenes of the season, and of the entire career of Gianni Rivera, occurred on the day of the aforementioned title-winning game against Bologna. The San Siro was undergoing some maintenance work in a section of the second tier, but, before the start of the game, some fans invaded that area, putting themselves and those in the surroundings at risk. The probability was high that, if the situation was not resolved quickly, the sports judge would have forfeited the match with a defeat for Milan. Thus, Rivera took the microphone and improvised a speech to the crowd where he explained the situation and warned about the risk of a forfeited game. The tifosi, trusting their idol, slowly evacuated the area, allowing the match to start regularly, 26 minutes later than scheduled.

Squad
(vice captain)

(captain)

First round
Group 4