Giroud optimistic ahead of the season opener: "We've got a lot of hope"

Olivier Giroud, who arrived from Chelsea just a few weeks ago, made his full debut for Milan this evening as he started against Real Madrid. Although he didn’t get on the scoresheet, he was pleased with his display.

The Frenchman will be the deputy for Zlatan Ibrahimovic this upcoming season and he got off to a flying start with the Milan shirt, scoring with his first touch against Nice. He also converted a penalty in the shoot-out against Valencia, but missed out tonight.

In an interview with MilanTV, as you can see in the video below, Giroud was pleased with the performance of the team. He also expressed his delight at playing 90 minutes again, having just made appearances off the bench prior to tonight.

“I felt good in the game obviously and I think we played a great game. It feels good to play 90 minutes, I think I’m getting ready soon to help the team to reach our targets. It was a great game against a very strong team.

“We have shown our quality even if we can still improve and everything wasn’t perfect. The intentions were very good and we have been very united. We are improving our understanding. We’ve got a lot of hope for the future, we just need to improve small things.

Milan will take on Panathinaikos in their final pre-season friendly on Saturday and the feeling is that Giroud will start that game as well.