AC Milan head coach Stefano Pioli has conceded that his side simply did not do enough in their performance during the defeat against Liverpool tonight.
Milan went into the final group stage game with a chance of qualifying for the last 16 despite the fact they had won just one of their previous five games in the competition. What the Rossoneri needed to do was win against Liverpool and hope that Porto didn’t beat Atletico Madrid, but they couldn’t even get the first bit right as Jurgen Klopp’s side won 2-1.
Pioli spoke to Sky Italia after the game and gave an honest reflection after what was a very sub-par display from his team, devoid of any real intensity, creativity or inspiration, with MilanNews relaying his comments.
“We have to bring home the awareness that the level in Europe is very high. I knew the difficulty of the group and of tonight’s match, unfortunately we didn’t give a great pace to the match and from a technical point of view it wasn’t ours. best match,” he said.
“There are some regrets, against Atletico and Porto at home we would have deserved more. But in our path we are going to find these difficulties. They will be useful for our growth. We will treasure this. There is disappointment because we wanted to stay in Europe.
“Sometimes we could make more use of Ibra’s presence with a long ball. Too many times we played balls backwards, instead of playing balls forward. I am referring above all to the second goal. We have to work better, making better use of the width of the field. We will need it especially when the opponents press us.”
Milan ended up finishing in last place in the group, given that Porto and Atletico Madrid also ended up above the Rossoneri, which shows perhaps just how far off the team are.
“The opponents are strong, I knew of their strength, I thought perhaps that Porto were less strong, but we are talking about a team used to playing in the Champions League. We suffered from this little experience. Today was a game to be careful and give little. We hadn’t conceded much until their first goal. The second goal conceded took away our clarity, we tried until the end. We need to grow and have certain experiences.”
Pioli spoke more specifically about the goals let in: “On the first one it is difficult to be placed better, on the rebound of the goalkeeper you have to be more ready. We had to do better. In the two goals we conceded, our mistakes were more than the quality of the opponents. We have to improve and make fewer mistakes.
“On the second goal one of our midfielders takes the ball and could turn around and go forward and instead came back, putting our defender in difficulty. The San Siro field is not in good condition at the moment, I also talked about it with Klopp. But not we are looking for excuses, we lost and are out. It’s a real shame. We interpreted the game well, we had to do better at the first goal.
“We have faced strong opponents. We are not yet ready to compete with teams like Liverpool which are one of the candidates to win the Champions League. We have a long way to go, we all know that. The fans have been fantastic, we are sorry for them. We will try to do better.”
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