AC Milan defender Fikayo Tomori has insisted that he is feeling good again after his long absence due to injury, and admitted that he hopes to help the team after some defensive woes.
Milan managed to secure a 4-2 win in the first leg, but the scoreline does not begin to tell the story of what was a game at San Siro that seemed to produce more question marks than answers in terms of being a serious candidate to win the Europa League.
Olivier Giroud, Tijjani Reijnders, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Christian Pulisic scored for Milan, but Slavia played for 70 minutes with 10 men and scored twice while they were a man down, making it 1-1 in the first half and 3-2 in the second.
Slavia head coach Jindrich Trpisovsky stated at full-time that his side will beat Milan in the return leg, and that confidence is understandable based on last week’s showing, but it might have made Pioli’s team talk easier.
Tomori spoke alongside head coach Stefano Pioli in his pre-match press conference at the Fortuna Arena on the eve of the game, with his comments relayed by MilanNews.
How are you after the injury?
“I feel good, I’m happy to be back on the pitch. We work every day, every match to put in a good performance, to win the game. The same will be tomorrow. I want to give what I can.
“I’m a defender, I try to help the team defensively and tomorrow it will be the same thing. There will be a very, very red hot atmosphere tomorrow, so we will have to be ready. Not just me, but the whole team.”
How are the squad?
“We have a good group, I try to be happy on the pitch and try to support the team. After two months, being on the field is a good thing.”
What must Milan do to improve?
“We have conceded a lot of goals, there are periods in seasons that we don’t do as we want, but we are working every day to improve. Tomorrow evening we will focus on the defensive phase and making less mistakes going forward.”
There are players who have come in and replaced you well in your absence…
“We have several players in the centre-back role. There are players who want to help the team. There are not only two or three central defenders but also Theo, Gabbia is doing well, Kalulu, Kajer and Thiaw.”
Do Milan have the obligation to win the Europa League?
“At the beginning of the season we wanted to win all the games. The goal is to get as high as possible in the league. In Europe, however, it’s about winning game by game starting with tomorrow’s match, to get as far as possible.”
