Brahim Diaz was one of the heroes for AC Milan in their 1-0 win against Napoli last night. He helped set up the game-winner, which gives the Rossoneri an advantage heading into the second leg.
The Spaniard showed his dribbling qualities yet again and Napoli really struggle to stop him at times. It became evident on the goal, as he dribbled past two opponents with a nice turn and then found Rafael Leao on the flank.
Speaking to UEFA’s official channel, Diaz shared his thoughts on the game and urged Milan to keep this spirit moving forward. He was also asked about the fact that Milan have kept five consecutive clean sheets in the competition.
How happy are you?
“It was hard. I was the player of the match but the important thing was the result. They had their chances, we had our chances. But everything is still open, we need to keep fighting. We need to keep this spirit and continue working like this because this is what we are. We are a team with a lot of talent and it’s important to play like this for the fans.”
Five consecutive clean sheets in UCL, what’s the secret?
“The secret is everyone needs to work. The attack and the defence. That’s the secret. Work hard, don’t concede space to the opponent and that’s all.”
Napoli played well…
“Yeah, they played well. The one chance we had we scored and that was great. I think they had a really good game, but so did we. The first 15 minutes were tough, it was hard for us to stay in the game, but after that we did well.”
Milan will face Napoli in the second leg next week but first, they will be up against Bologna at Dall’Ara. It remains to be seen how much rotation Stefano Pioli will make, because there surely will be some.
Another good game from Diaz, looks like the right wing role suits him better. Great dribbling skills in tight space plus good acceleration after that.
However, allow me to be a bit critical with his game vision. On the attack leading to our sole goal, the right pass is to Bennacer on the left and not to Leao on the right; it didn’t have any detrimental impact at the end, yet the fine details are those that make the difference at top level
Have you ever played football and in those kind of situation? I assure you, at that times , facing defender in a situation after a sprint, everything seemed so fast and every decision need to be taken at split second.
And have you really seen the goal? At the time of the pass, Bennacer was behind Diaz. He was outside of Diaz’ field of view.