AC Milan technical director Paolo Maldini is expecting the team to show more fight and application against Red Star compared to the weekend.
The Rossoneri will be looking to put Saturday’s shock defeat against Spezia behind them and give themselves a firm footing ahead of the second leg back at San Siro in a week’s time.
Milan return to play at the Marakana in Belgrade for the third time in their history tonight, the other two occasions being in 1988 and 2006.
Maldini spoke to Sky Italia before the game against Red Star, with his comments transcribed by MilanNews and translated below.
“I have many memories of that 1988 game, it seemed like a week but it was only two days. A well-deserved victory, but without the fog something would have changed,” he said (via MilanLive).
“We played badly in La Spezia, we deserved the defeat. AC Milan made the turning point some time ago. We are different from last year, all beautiful things cannot be ruined by a single party.”
The psychological state of the team: “Let’s see, we did high intensity training with a negative result. We are ready to play every 3 days, we have never ditched ourselves. It is our strength. I expect a positive response as always.”
On his personal satisfaction: “It is linked to the team’s results, I didn’t have so many doubts last year. The work we did with Boban and Massara needed time. What is missing in football is to see what happens in the future.”
On today’s AC Milan: “Everyone has their own characteristics, in the case of Theo Hernandez we have to keep him, we would go on longer than expected but it is a force of nature. Calabria’s improvements are enormous, that’s what we ask of all our players. Our idea is that between the 11 players the two full backs have more space to set up.”
Finally, on facing Inter legend Dejan Stankovic, who is the Red Star boss: “A loyal and very strong opponent, he’s a nice guy, his son plays in the Primavera and he’s a good prospect. I am happy for his adventure.”
