Paulo Fonseca praised the work that he has seen from his AC Milan team out in the United States, and stressed that the objective for the season is to win the Scudetto.
Milan closed out their 2024 Soccer Champions Tour campaign with another victory and this time via a penalty shootout against Barcelona at the M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, making it three wins out of three.
The Rossoneri were two up fairly early on after goals from Luka Jovic and Christian Pulisic, but Robert Lewandowski responded quickly and got another goal in the second half to draw Barca level and the Catalan side were dominant in the second half.
Having finished 2-2 after 90 minutes the game went to penalties, and Lorenzo Torriani was the hero making two saves in a 4-3 shootout win, after having made a number of decisive interventions during the game as well.
Fonseca did a post-match press conference after the game in Maryland which rounded off the USA tour in the best way, and La Gazzetta dello Sport transcribed some of his responses.
How do you feel the USA tour went?
“I am very satisfied with the players, with the courage they show, with how they play. All the players. We already see clear intentions, after four weeks it is not easy. The boys have been fantastic in these weeks. We have a lot to improve but we are taking the right steps. The tour was very very positive, the feelings are very good.”
You used Pulisic as a No.10…
“Pulisic had a fantastic match for me. I really like seeing him in this position with great participation. What does he bring to Milan? He had a great first season, he will continue to be very important, I have no doubts.
“He played as a 10 in the first half. In the second half we played without strikers, with Pulisic and Loftus-Cheek as two number 10s. Christian can play anywhere in attack, he is very, very intelligent.
“I liked seeing him there and Saelemaekers as a full-back, today we started with a different structure in build-up, more attacking.”
Torriani was the shootout hero…
“I can only say great things about him, I have no words for him. Sportiello got hurt in the hotel, Torriani played with great personality and courage. It’s too early but I have no doubt that we have a goalkeeper for the future . This goalkeeper will have a great future.”
What is your objective for the season?
“To win the Scudetto.”
Go for it brah. We’re behind you
Glad it is not “CL Qualification and Rd16 in the UCL” . I like that he didnt even think.
Transfer: Man Utd in talks to sign Fofana (todays daily post). guess we lost it if we didn’t do it till now
They can have him. At first I was not keen with the way the milan management were handling the transfer, but the money they offered is more than fair.
35m for a player that would be free next year is something that only Man Utd would do
It’s not about Fofana but about wasting time on most needed reinforcement and that is a defensive minded midfielder. I rate our management’s work this summer as a big failure because a DM was something they should close first. Juventus closed Douglas Luiz and Thuram in a matter of two weeks. We’re two weeks from season’s start and we’re without a midfield. These 60 million runners they got last summer aren’t worth a dime and it showed once again against Barcelona.
Complete and utter sh*thousery from our management.
Don’t worry we are about to sign mediocre RB to add to the other 5 or 6 we have!
Let’s ignore the lack of LB back up.
As you say a good young striker and DM were the roles we needed to fill, anything else is depth or tweeks
Fonseca saying it with his chest:
“To win the Scudetto.”
Carry on then Paulo! I like what I have seen so far. Let’s see how it looks when the games count
Can someone explain WHY Camarda did not get a chance?! After Jovic was subbed off Loftus-Cheek and then Zeroli played as CF? Why????
It’s a friendly, take a chill pill. Kids 16, he will have his time eventually
“To win the Scudetto.”
Love this confidence.
The mentality too.
Didn’t flinch either lol
Bring it!