AC Milan head coach Stefano Pioli has bemoaned the fact that his side allowed Sassuolo the chance to get back into the game during their 2-1 defeat tonight.
Hakan Calhanoglu curled in a wonderful strike in the first half to give Milan a lead that their early pressure had deserved, but it all fell apart from there as the Rossoneri’s defensive stability completely evaporated inside the final 15 minutes.
Milan were made to pay for their missed chances as Sassuolo levelled it. In truth it was a fantastic piece of work from Raspadori, who did well to turn and fire the ball wide to Toljan on the right before firing his feed past Donnarumma from around the penalty spot.
Minutes later, Sassuolo took the lead. It was poor all round from Milan as Kjaer gave the ball away cheaply in midfield allowing Raspadori to once again turn into a dangerous position, and this time he beat Tomori comfortably before drilling a low shot in off the far post with Donnarumma stood still.
Pioli spoke to Milan TV after the game, and revealed his belief that the Rossoneri deserved to score more than once, with his comments transcribed by MilanNews.
“We had many important situations in the second half, but we didn’t play at a high level in those situations that could lead us to the goal: in the end those who score more win and they scored one more than us,” he said.
“I don’t think that, given the way we played, we deserved to score only one goal. Too bad for having lost, sorry because we had interpreted the game well. Let’s think about the next one now.
“We come from a negative result yes, from a negative performance definitely not. When you lose there is always something more you can do in and we have to do it in the next games. The race for the Champions League is a tough and demanding race and it will be like that until the end of the season. Today we didn’t take the result away at home. We’ll try the next one.”
On the changes: “They made changes without changing positions, then whoever scores is always right. I think the team did well on the pitch, we had two options: either attack them or wait for them and we did well the first one. It’s part of our path, of our season. Now we have to think about the next match.
“The direct clashes will be decisive and we think about preparing well for the match against Lazio. The result is negative and we are very sorry. We must understand that we need to better control the match and be a little clearer: we gave the opponents the opportunity to stay in the game.”