Borussia Dortmund’s youth team coach Mike Tullberg was full of praise for AC Milan’s Primavera side after yesterday’s UEFA Youth League game in Germany.
Dortmund made it to the quarter-finals of the last edition of the Youth League where they lost 9-8 on penalties to Hajduk Split after a 1-1 draw, the team that would go on to beat Milan in the semi-finals then lose to AZ Alkmaar in the final.
However, it was Ignazio Abate’s boys who made it two wins from two in the Youth League with an impressive 2-1 victory away against Dortmund yesterday afternoon, with Diego Sia and Kevin Zeroli getting the goals.
Interviewed by the official website of Dortmund, Tullberg reflected on what was a difficult afternoon for his players in a game that had a lot of quality on show, and his comments were relayed by MilanNews.
“We have already played against some exceptional teams in the UEFA Youth League, but Milan have exceptional quality, they played in a mature and mature way,” he said.
“Milan are a close-knit team, they showed excellent football, especially in the first half. The Rossoneri circulated the ball quickly and with great confidence, made almost no mistakes and clearly dominated the match.
“They punished our mistakes, but we lacked courage. But we have to even admit that our young team cannot yet compete with Milan. After the substitutions things seemed to be going better overall, but Milan had already shown us our limits.
“However, I must compliment the team because they never gave up. Our boys can only learn from games like this. Milan are definitely one of the big favourites to win the UEFA Youth League this season.”
