After the game between Genoa and AC Milan, which the latter won 1-0, Stefano Pioli spoke to the media about the special ending. He revealed that it was almost Christian Pulisic that went in goal after Mike Maignan’s sending off.
Olivier Giroud was forced to finish the game between the sticks and made a crucial intervention in the dying minutes, diving without fear to collect the ball. Prior to that, Pulisic had scored the opener for Milan.
Speaking to MilanTV (see video below), Pioli shared his thoughts on the mentality of Milan and also revealed that Pulisic always went in goal for the final minutes.
On the crazy ending…
“I experienced it like our fans, with a lot of tension because we were finally able to break the deadlock in the game. It seemed like Pulisic was going to go in goal, but then he said it’s probably better if Giroud does it because he’s taller. It turned out well, we have to credit Oli.”
On the team mentality…
“I believe the team’s growth is going in the right direction, only a while back it seemed we could only win the games in which we were clearly better than our opponent. We are now able to win when we are not at our best, this is really important. By always believing, and with the help of our fantastic fans, we came away with a big win.”
On the attacking trio…
“We can all still do better. It’s true that we have a cohesive group, but clearly for the players who joined just three months ago, they haven’t finished their integration. There’s still room to grow in many things, we have also had some very busy weeks.”
On their targets this season…
“Our aim is to be competitive and try to win. Like us, there will be Inter, Juve and Napoli, I believe these four teams will fight for the Scudetto. All of these points weren’t a given for us after eight games, also because of the special schedule, this was our fifth away game out of the eight clashes. But it’s too early to speak about the Scudetto.”
