Conceicao praises ‘intelligent’ and ‘compact’ Milan after ‘fair’ draw against Inter

Sergio Conceicao sees the glass as being half full after his side put in a much-improved performance and draw the first leg against Inter.

Milan and Inter will have it all to play for in the second leg in three weeks after they played out a 1-1 draw at San Siro on Wednesday night, with both of the goals coming in an action-packed second half.

After a goalless opening 45 minutes, things sprung into life when Tammy Abraham received a feed from Youssouf Fofana, turned onto his right foot and fired a low shot past Martinez.

The equaliser was scored by Hakan Calhanoglu, and it was a nice shot from outside the box that Mike Maignan maybe could have done better with, even if it was through a crowd and he did redeem himself by denying Zalewski later on.

Conceicao spoke to SportMediaset after the full-time whistle to offer his assessments after an entertaining and at times feisty derby, with his comments relayed by MilanNews.

A draw keeps everything open. How much do you believe? Was it a fair result?

“We are halfway. We are now waiting for this return leg, there is the possibility of going to Rome to play a final that we want so much. I thank the fans who were fantastic.

“It was a balanced match against a difficult opponent who knows us very well. We had to play an intelligent game in our defensive organisation: we did it and I am very happy.”

So, glass half full?

“We also had chances. I didn’t see Inter coming as they normally do. They are good on set pieces, they caused us some problems in the first half. In the first half we had a couple of chances, in the second half too.

“The result is fair, a very balanced game. I’m happy with this approach. We had already done well in the second half in Naples, we have to continue working to reach this goal that we have: to reach the final of the Coppa Italia and win.”

You switched the ball a few times quickly…

“We were prepared. When they are deeper it is not easy with the midfielders who have to cover the whole width: if we did it quickly we could find numerical superiority. We created difficulties with Theo and Walker behind the midfielders.”

Why haven’t you been able to find any consistency in these four months? Why are there too many ups and downs?

“I’ve been here for three months. Small detail. I arrived here and we played two games, one against Juve and one against Inter, after we arrived here we started a series of games every three days. For two weeks I’ve had the team a little freer to work and find the right things for the balance of the team.

“I know it may seem like an excuse but it’s not an excuse. We’re working on the pitch, not just on video, to be able to give answers like today’s or like the second half in Naples. Nothing fantastic, but we were a much more compact team, the way I like it.”