AC Milan clinched their third consecutive win last night as they beat Lazio by two goals to nil. Stefano Pioli was understandably pleased afterwards but made it clear that playing every three days is far from easy.
The Rossoneri managed to build on the wins against Hellas Verona and Cagliari, putting in a strong performance especially in the second half against Lazio. Christian Pulisic and Noah Okafor were the goalscorers, with Rafael Leao assisting both.
Speaking to MilanTV after the game, as you can see in the video below, Pioloi shared his thoughts on the result and the upcoming game against Borussia Dortmund.
On the game…
“It was a tough game, especially in the first half. We did have chances to hurt them, but we got caught up too much in scoring. But the energy and aggressiveness we put into the second half, and the quality, was important. Another hard-fought win.”
On Loftus-Cheek’s injury…
“Let’s hope it’s nothing too serious, Ruben left the pitch with abdominal pain. We don’t know exactly what’s wrong. He was playing very well, I put him up again Luis Alberto. But we’ll become strong when we stop depending on individuals.”
On Adli…
“Yacine felt it, it’s true that we want a new stadium, but he felt the weight of San Siro. That’s normal. He worked hard, he just needs to grow in confidence. He grew in the second half just like the entire team. I took him off to have fresh legs, he did well and I’m pleased.”
On the second half…
“We gave ourselves a message at the interval because we had some issues in the first half. We altered a few of our positions and we kept going, playing with more energy. Thank you to my players for their mentality.”
On the fans…
“Amazing support, they are our 12th man and this is important. The players earned it by giving everything and the fans deserved it too.”
On Dortmund…
“We are ready and the next game in the Champions League is very important. Dortmund are an intense side and they have a lot of quality up front. It will be a difficult game. We will need to be at out best.”
Thank you for playing adli, coach