AC Milan midfielder Sandro Tonali has admitted that he and his team-mates were not at their best against Red Bull Salzburg but managed to stay solid.
After last season’s exit as the bottom-placed side in the group, there was a familiar worrying feeling Milan seemed to be surprised by the tempo that their opponents played at, and Salzburg who took the lead when Noah Okafor beat Pierre Kalulu and slotted past Mike Maignan to punish Ismael Bennacer’s giveaway.
However, Milan then managed to recoup their composure and equalised before the break when Alexis Saelemaekers collected a cut-back from Rafael Leao to finish into the corner at the near post past Kohn. That is how the scores would stay though, with both sides guilty of a sloppy second half.
Tonali spoke during an interview with Milan TV to recap what was a testing night at times against a fast, young and intense opponent, with his comments relayed by MilanNews.
“We knew we were meeting a strong and fast team. It was a tough, hard and complicated game from the very first minutes. They didn’t create a lot, but when they did it, they could hurt us. We stayed the whole game in line, without playing our best football and without playing badly. We kept a line,” he said.
Milan seem to be good at reacting…
“In football you can always concede goals, you need great strength to react immediately. We know how to do it and we showed it, even if it would be better for us to score first.”
Games are now being played every three days…
“We’ve been preparing for it for some time. It’s normal, we’re ready for it.”
There was no enthusiasm in Milan’s game.
“Milan is good at reacting”
Yes good point, and it is one of Attacking Team’s trait with Champion DNA.
Just 1 thing that differ us from European Elites : individual’s quality. I hope this season other young players will have their explosion. I expect : CDK, Bennacer, & Saelemaekers (because now we have good AMC in CDK, so hopefully Saelemaekers will back to his prime when we have Calhanoglu).