Cremonese head coach Davide Nicola has spoken about his pride despite the fact his side came up short against AC Milan.
Read SempreMilan ad-free and get access to exclusive news. Click here for a free trial!
Milan left it late against Cremonese in the Sunday lunchtime kick-off at the Stadio Giovanni Zini, but they scored twice in the closing minutes to claim a 2-0 victory that they very much needed after the defeat to Parma last weekend.
The goals came in the 90th and 94th minutes courtesy of Strahinja Pavlovic and Rafael Leao. The first was from a corner taken short and glanced on by Koni De Winter, while the second saw Christopher Nkunku square to the Portuguese forward after a counter-attack with seconds left.
Nicola spoke in his post-match press conference after the final whistle and he was largely upbeat about the way his team played, with his words relayed by MilanNews.
It wasn’t a very lucky match…
“It was beautiful.”
What do you think about Milan’s goals?
“The second was a reaction to our desire to get back in the game, because then, arriving directly at that moment made it easier for us to score the same goal they scored. There were those details that made the difference in their goal, because there was no positioning error.
“Of course, we’re disappointed at conceding the goal at the end, but there’s a whole narrative of the game that we wanted to tell ourselves. This is our way of playing, and I believe we can achieve safety this way.
“I’ll add one thing: there are moments when matches become more important and decisive, and we’ll have to be good at understanding that.”
How do you move forward?
“I think the fans showed today that they’ve taken another step forward, even the opening choreography was beautiful.
“We knew we weren’t performing the two phases as we should have, perhaps we were focusing too much on other things, but during the match we suffered, as everyone does. We must continue to believe in what we’re doing and have the ambition to achieve safety.”
What are the reasons for this confidence, and what are the risks?
“Whatever you do, in any environment, everyone takes risks. I believe we can achieve our goal, which is very important to us and could open up a new path for us, and that fascinates me. I believe that certain types of performances, like today, are the best way to achieve this.
“There are always risks, but not believing in what you’re doing is even more so. If Cremonese expresses itself like this, it can achieve its goal. The enthusiasm you have to put into it is equal to the risk you have to take.”