Tomorrow afternoon, AC Milan will head to face Sassuolo at the Stadium Mapei and the expectation will be three points arriving.
As we enter the final weeks of the season, Milan are starting to lag a little. Results have dropped in quality, at least compared to how they started the season, and it almost feels like that Massimiliano Allegri ‘Corto Muso’ style of football is being transferred to the standings.
The Rossoneri deserve to be where they are and they could qualify for the Champions League this weekend with three points, as long as other results go in their favour.
However, Fabbio Grosso’s Sassuolo team will not be an easy opponent and Allegri is well aware of that. Indeed, he stressed as much during his own pre-match press conference.
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Grosso’s press conference
Speaking before the game, Grosso also sat down to speak to the media and he discussed several topics, as MilanNews relays from TMW.
Sassuolo perhaps played their best game in the first leg, showing off their personality. Did you ask yourself that question for tomorrow?
“That’s what we’ve asked ourselves in every league game, because when you face opponents like tomorrow’s, you have to be good at doing many things well and limiting their qualities. Incidents then determine how much you get, because in that match we could have been two goals down and it would have been almost impossible to stay in the game.
“Instead, we drew, and we could have even gone ahead and won, risking a coup. There are difficulties, and we’ve prepared to face them, knowing that we’ll have to be good at limiting their characteristics, regardless of who starts or who comes in.
“We’ll understand tomorrow because we all know that the level we have to bring in has to be high, otherwise you’ll leave empty-handed.”
AC Milan starts from the bottom and stretches the lead even without Modric: how do you plan to counter?
“Modric is missing tomorrow, an important player for them, which is a shame for the game, which has shown it can still make a difference.
“There will be moments when we’ll try to be aggressive, others where they’ll force us to be aggressive in other areas of the pitch, so we need to be good at recognising those moments, with the understanding that our level must be very high, otherwise you can’t get anything out of these games.
“We’ve prepared for many options and will try to resist their potential, which is very respectable.”
Is there a risk of seeing a team that’s complacent or highly motivated to achieve a major goal?
“The motivation is there. We’ve done well to emerge from certain situations in a difficult championship for a newly promoted team. Next year, the scenario will change, and you’ll have something to lean on.
“We’re motivated, but there are many situations. We played against Fiorentina in different moments, and it was a difficult day at a difficult time, against a motivated opponent.
“We’re giving ourselves a well-deserved recovery, then in the other days we’re together, we’ll try to raise the level, and I hope we can put in a good performance because this team deserves to finish the season strong.
“In the second half of the season, we picked up the same number of points as the first, and we can still improve, and we want to try to do so. We don’t have any league table targets, but we have the will to try to play matches.”
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