Following the humiliating defeat against Inter, Stefano Pioli spoke to the media and shared his thoughts on what went wrong for AC Milan. However, he ended up getting quite defensive instead.
Milan quickly conceded in tonight’s derby and it was an uphill battle from there, conceding the second goal just before half-time. Despite making it 2-1 through Rafael Leao, the game eventually finished 5-1 in favour of the Nerazzurri.
Speaking to DAZN after the game, as cited by MilanLive, Pioli got a bit defensive in his answers. Something that perhaps the Rossoneri fans won’t appreciate after a huge derby loss, even if he did admit that they need to do better.
On the goals conceded…
“We conceded in situations in which it seemed that we could get back into the game, that was our flaw. It was like that throughout the match. We conceded the second goal thanks to our mistake, making the wrong play. We deservedly closed the gap to 2-1, but after the 3-1 goal it was over. It shouldn’t happen, it’s sad to lose the derby but above by four goals. We were in the game until the 3-1 goal, they were smarter.”
The gap with Inter…
“It was like this today, we can do better, we will work to understand the situations in which we were ineffective. It’s normal at the start of the season especially since so much has changed. I’m taking 70 minutes with me, the last 15 minutes need to be reviewed.”
The first goal and the possible foul…
“No comment, the referee made that decision. Inter won because they believed in it more than us. We made mistakes despite having set up the game well, they were clever in the situations. It’s normal that we always talk about the approach, but in the first 4 minutes, we were the only ones on the ball.”
On slow ball possession and counter-attacks…
“They are a compact team, difficult to hit, they waited for us. We should have been wider with the wingers and looked for long corridors. The match went the way they wanted, we had our situations, but we weren’t effective and precise at 2-1. We can do better, we need speed, we created some situations, but it was difficult to gain numerical superiority.”
Do Inter have a better bench?
“I made some substitutions but we immediately got a penalty on a throw-in. It’s not easy to come in when the rest of the team is tired. They are strong, but so are we, I am convinced that we can play for the Scudetto, we wanted another result but this does not take anything away from my players and the depth of the squad. Many are new and need to understand Italian football, we will try to do it as quickly as possible.”
On the upcoming Champions League clash…
“We will analyze the negative things and do better on Tuesday, no problems from a mental point of view. It went badly, we are very sorry for the fans but we are mature and tomorrow morning, we will immediately think about doing better.”
Milan will have to forget about the loss quickly as they will take on Newcastle in the first Champions League clash on Tuesday evening. It will be played at home at San Siro and the fans could use a good win, as well as the players.
