Peppe Di Stefano gave an update on AC Milan from Milanello the day after the match against Fiorentina, and he revealed a story regarding Francesco Camarda.
Milan really needed to end their four-game winless run in Serie A last night in front of over 70,000 of their own fans at San Siro and they did so thanks to Theo Hernandez’s penalty at the end of the first half. It was, however, a real slog in which Mike Maignan needed to make a huge save in the 96th minute.
Di Stefano spoke live on Sky this evening from the training ground to give an update on how the team are a day after their crucial win, with his comments relayed by Radio Rossonera.
“In recent years, in the Pioli era, Milan has always won, because it had the identity and Milan won the Scudetto, made great comebacks and reached the semi-finals of the Champions League for that identity, not for a player or two players different from the others, but Milan have always struggled to win gitty matches,” he said.
“If Milan had been with this humility, with this determination even against Napoli and Lecce in the second half, perhaps they would have won the match. Yesterday Milan won almost like a provincial team, but it is a victory that remained very much within the dressing room.
“From what I understand today they are aware that when they return to playing like Milan and dribbling the way they know how to dribble they will be able to win matches, but now they have discovered another way to bring home matches: suffering in compact groups, gritty victories and victories with enormous difficulty.”
Despite having a narrow 1-0 lead and with Fiorentina pushing heavily for an equaliser, Pioli decided to send Camarda on in the 84th minute. At the age of 15 years and 260 days, the striker became the youngest Serie A debutant in Serie A history.
“The story within the story is that of Francesco Camarda who enters and at the moment when Pioli calls him he has an instinctive smile, the very little Francesco who smiles, puts his jacket in front, because he didn’t want to be seen, it was a smile of emotion and when he enters the pitch and there is an ovation from the fans, he looks up at the sky and snorts with a smile full of emotion and pride like that of his mother in the stands.
“It was also the worst time to see a 15 year 8 month and 15 day old boy in action. He didn’t touch a ball or very few and had to chase his opponents, but in my opinion there will be room for him who knows even in the match against Frosinone, because Milan will have Giroud back for Tuesday, but he will be disqualified in the Championship next Saturday.”
