AC Milan head coach Stefano Pioli believes that his side will learn a lot from their 3-0 defeat to Inter despite the fact it is such a damaging loss.
The Rossoneri were well beaten by their city rivals as they moved four points clear at the top of the Serie A table thanks to a brace from Lautaro Martinez and another derby goal from Romelu Lukaku.
The Argentine gave the Nerazzurri the lead just a few minutes in with an easy header and then doubled the advantage before the hour mark before Lukaku essentially killed the game off with his run and finish.
Pioli was interviewed by Sky Italia after the game, with his comments transcribed by MilanNews.
On the game: “The mood is what it is, it’s a game we all cared about. We absolutely wanted a different result, we’re sorry not to have succeeded. It wasn’t a positive week. The first few minutes weren’t so intense, the goal later five minutes allowed Inter to play the game they wanted. There was the regret of not having drawn when we had the opportunity. It was a difficult week but we must not lose the will to grow, it is a game that it will teach us so much.”
On the mood: “I have already spoken to the team. It is a very young team. If they had told us months ago that we were second we would have jumped for joy. Today we do not jump to play, whoever loses has to work better and we we will do it.”
On the way to compete: “The path is necessarily long for a team that is among the youngest in Europe. Today we played against a high-level team, but we played football. We have to turn the page, think immediately about the Europa League, we want to move forward. I’ve never put my hands forward, but when I said that there are seven strong teams and the fight for the Champions League is very tough, I wasn’t lying. We have the qualities to keep doing well until the end.”
On his convictions: “We are very sorry but we know our qualities. Today we needed an exceptional game, we didn’t succeed. We are a good team but the competitiveness of our opponents in the second round is up.”
On strategies: “Today we tried something different, in every match we study a different strategy. These performances must be evaluated in depth, to understand what worked and what didn’t.”
At the moment: “We are all focused on the pitch, it was a bad week, but that doesn’t take anything away.”
On the feeling of Ibra in the locker room: “Not only Ibra, we were all there with our heads down.”
Samir Handanovic was in inspired form for the Nerazzurri and made several key saves to deny Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Sandro Tonali and later Hakan Calhanoglu.
On Ibra’s chances: “It was a shame not to equalise when we were dominating, not having succeeded is the real regret.”
On tactics: “If you don’t attack with all the players it becomes difficult to create chances. We will try to improve above all the situation where we conceded the second goal. The opponents are there, their qualities are recognised, but we created a lot in the second half. Today we weren’t able to draw due to bad luck, not demerits.”
You know what your strategies should be.instead of showing off with harmond clothes you should consider resigining and leave us keep up with our life’s without you Mr Donkey Pioli…
Poor pioli, he seems like montella, too much reasons. By keeping the same problem and nevertheless resolve it by keeping romagnoli on the pitch. He has to fix it….
Not only romanogli but several other players are living a dream getting paid millions by ac milan for for walking on Italian pitches!!!!!!