AC Milan boss Stefano Pioli has insisted his side will learn from their mistakes after a very disappointing 3-0 defeat at home to Lille.
The Rossoneri’s 24-game unbeaten run across all competitions was ended in abrupt fashion as Lille ran out the comfortable victors at San Siro thanks to a superb hat-trick from Turkish forward Yusuf Yazici, who scored from the spot in the first half and twice from outside the area in the second half.
Pioli was interviewed by Sky Italia after the game, with his comments transcribed by MilanNews, and he was very complimentary about the opposition.
“We met a strong team, we complicated our lives. We didn’t start the game badly, but we didn’t manage to be as dangerous as I thought, then once we got behind we gave them too much space,” he said.
“We start again by evaluating the performance, the positive and negative things. For tonight after a long time we will have to analyse more negative things than positive but with great awareness of our qualities.
“We have not underestimated anyone, we have made mistakes. Also in the past we have made some, we will learn from this performance. I have a young but mature team, mature teams know how to react immediately to difficulties and today we have had a few too many.”
The games against Lille could very well be decisive in the group stages and Pioli chose to make five changes to his starting XI from the team that won against Udinese on Sunday, something which has drawn enquiries from some supporters but that he has defended.
“I thought it was the best team for the moment, in the first half we controlled the pitch well aside from the penalty. The technical precision today was not at a great level, then the game got a bit complicated,” he said.
Pioli also believes that the scoreline of 3-0 flatters Lille a bit, as Milan had their own chances in the game.
“The score is a bit heavy, we also had the chance for Kessie to equalise. They punished us for almost every mistake. Three complicated games await us but we will prepare to face them.”
There has been a suggestion that Zlatan Ibrahimovic was not happy when he was withdrawn from the game for Ante Rebic.
“I didn’t hear what he said, but I think he was not satisfied with the performance of the team and his own performance. We are a young group, we will try to grow also by learning from this defeat.
“The environment is compact, cohesive. Milanello is fantastic, we have all the conditions to do our job at best, with all these components a coach is able to give his best in his work.”
