After the win against Paris Saint-Germain, AC Milan manager Stefano Pioli shares his thoughts on the impressive performance. He also commented on Rafael Leao, who was decisive after a few weeks of struggling.
Milan needed to win this evening and thanks to a great performance, they managed to do so. Despite conceding the first goal of the game, the Rossoneri didn’t give up and quickly equalised through Rafael Leao. Then, in the second half, Olivier Giroud scored the winner.
Speaking to Sky Italia, as cited by MilanNews, Pioli shared his thoughts on the successful tactics and bouncing back from the disappointment against Udinese. He also shared a few words on Leao, who responded to the recent criticism.
On the victory…
“We did what we had to do. We played with the right spirit. We made an exceptional effort to put a great team back together. Congratulations to the boys. It was an important match for the group, nothing has been decided, now we will play at home against Dortmund.”
On the reaction after Udinese…
“They [the players] did a lot of the work. I reminded them of who we are and the path we have taken. We gave the fans a great evening after Saturday’s disappointment.”
On the game…
“It’s clear that I would like my Milan to always play like this. On Saturday, we made a more broader mistake in the game, but this team has its own way of playing and being on the pitch. These games say many things. We suffered, they kept the ball more, but we also had opportunities to score more goals. We took an important step forward, but the group will only be decided in the last round. Now we have a direct clash with Dortmund who are two points ahead of us and could be decisive.”
On Leao…
“This must be his standard. He can be a champion, but it depends only on him. He played an exceptional match like everyone else, not only in terms of quality, but also in terms of desire.”
On the differences between the Champions League and the league…
“It’s not a different Milan. We weren’t in difficulty against Juve and Napoli, we paid dearly for some mistakes. Tonight we suffered a lot, but we have to dive back into the league immediately.”
Milan will face Borussia Dortmund in the next round and with a win there, they will be in good shape for the Round of 16. However, given that this group is so tight, it will likely come down to the final round (when they will face Newcastle away from home).
