After the game between AC Milan and Roma, in which the former prevailed 3-1, Stefano Pioli spoke to the media and shared his thoughts on the performance. He also discussed the league standings, stating that the season is still long.
Milan managed to bounce back from the Coppa Italia disappointment mid-week as they put in a strong performance against Roma on Sunday evening. Yacine Adli gave them the lead early on and after Olivier Giroud made it two in the second half, Theo Hernandez then sealed the deal.
Speaking to DAZN after the game, as cited by MilanNews, Pioli shared his thoughts on the clash and what the Rossoneri did well. He also commented on the presence of Gerry Cardinale, who also spoke to the team in the locker room before the game.
On Milan’s victory…
“At 2-1, the match was certainly reopened, we needed to kill it when we did. That third goal gave us greater serenity at the end”.
On the defensive phase…
“The attacking wingers did what I asked of them. Given Roma’s formation, we worked more with the full-backs. We waited for them to avoid giving Roma depth. We did okay in the defensive phase, but we can always do better.”
On the transfer market…
“The club knows that there are needs and work is ongoing. We’ll see if we can seize some opportunities to cover some holes we have due to injuries.”
On Cardinale…
“His presence in the dressing room before the match was nice. He supported and stimulated us, he confirmed that the club will always be ambitious, always respecting the budget. I’m not talking about the budget for the January transfer window because I don’t know about it.”
On the group…
“We were the ones who raised expectations after the work done in recent years. When you don’t reach certain objectives there is criticism. We must always try to improve. The season is still long.”
On the Scudetto…
“Get us out of the Scudetto fight (he smiles, editor’s note). We only have to focus on ourselves. We have a clear objective: we had a decent first round, now we want to have an excellent second round. It won’t be easy, but we can only thing about the next match.”
On the standings…
“We could have had a few more points. We are paying for those four matches in which we only collected two points, not playing badly. But we don’t look at the past, we look at the present and the future. We can have our say in the league and in the Europa League.”
Milan will take on Udinese next, more specifically on Saturday, and it will be an away game for the Rossoneri. Now on three consecutive wins in the league, as well as five games unbeaten, they will be looking to extend that run.
I still believe in the Scudetto or at least become in the hunt. Its not over yet and we’re only half way. Its not May yet. We just have to win against Inter, have Juve and Inter draw in their h2h and a slip up and we’re back in it. It can happen.
Difficult to believe if it is not entirely in your control. Inter and Juve need to drop points and the only say we have in the matter are the 2 games against us. Amd then we need to keep the momentum. Otherwise it is for them to come unstuck so mathematically it is not in our hands.
9 points behind first but, more importantly, 9 points ahead of fifth.
Inter are currently reaping the twin benefits of ignoring financial issues and having a structured sports department in place for years that executed its summer plan perfectly. It’s frustrating that they’re better than this Milan team but for this point in time they should be ahead. Juve are taking advantage of zero European commitments.