AC Milan midfielder Sandro Tonali stressed that the most important thing was to escape with a win after starting 2023 with three points against Salernitana.
Milan began the game in excellent fashion as they scored twice in the opening 15 minutes, and Tonali was at the heart of both goals. The first saw him set Rafael Leao away as the winger rounded the keeper and slotted home, while he fired past Ochoa to get a goal of his own five minutes later.
Federico Bonazzoli made it a nervy last 20 minutes or so as he stole in at the back post to give the home side a lifeline, but ultimately the Rossoneri saw out the remaining time to cut the gap to Napoli back down to five points, at least until they play Inter later.
Tonali was interviewed by Sky Italia at the end of the game and reflected on what was a good performance but required a lot of fight for all three points, especially at the end. His comments were relayed by MilanNews and have been translated below.
“We know from last year’s match that playing here is difficult. Especially after conceding the 2-1 goal it was more difficult, we played to the end and it’s important to come out with a win,” Tonali said.
“We are a strong team, we were almost perfect because we could have scored 1-2 more goals to win more easily. Football is like this… We are happy for these 3 fundamental points, it was essential to close the series of bad friendlies and give everyone a signal.”
Do you want to put pressure on Napoli to defend the Scudetto?
“We know what we did last year and we know it matters, we will defend it to the last drop of sweat we can shed on the pitch. The 30 of us will defend it together with all the staff.”
You scored again at the Arechi after scoring your first goal for Brescia there…
“I saw the first goal I scored with the Brescia shirt again this morning, it touched me. As soon as I scored I had that thought there. It’s nice to score with both Milan and Brescia in the same goal and in the same stadium.”
