Empoli boss Davide Nicola admitted that he was happy with the way that his side applied themselves in the defensive phase and how they made things difficult for AC Milan.
Milan recorded their third straight win and jumped into second place as they beat Empoli 1-0 at San Siro on Sunday afternoon, and it was far from a classic in terms of entertainment.
The only goal of the game came in the final stages of the first half when Noah Okafor cut the ball back for Christian Pulisic to finish via a deflection from Luperto.
Initially the offside flag had gone up, though the review awarded the goal as the Swiss forward had held his run just enough, and that would prove to be the winner.
The clean sheet is an important one with Fikayo Tomori and Malick Thiaw starting together for the first time in over 100 days, and Milan jump two points above Juventus for the time being ahead of their match against Atalanta this evening.
Nicola spoke to DAZN after full-time to give his thoughts on how the game went, with his comments relayed by MilanNews, and he was eager to pick out the positives.
One goal conceded, and from a deflection…
“That’s where we paid for the not much we gave them. We have done an extraordinary job from this point of view. We knew that Milan would start strong.
“They have very strong players physically, this meant playing in a certain way for us. In the second half we did much better. It’s a shame about the goal conceded due to Ismaily’s injury and about the deflection…”
What do you take from the game?
“The response of the boys who faced a very strong team, they had the ability to play and have courage in the second half, also finding 2-3 opportunities. Milan didn’t give us much, but we didn’t give them much either.
“Without this type of performance, without thinking as a team, we cannot move forward on our path. We must remain emotionally light and absolutely determined on the pitch.”
