Stefano Pioli got the reaction he wanted from his players as they managed to beat Parma by three goals to one last night, despite going one man down in the 60th minute. And the manager should be praised as well.
When Milan went down to ten men, Pioli was quick to react and made five substitutions to energise the team. He also made a formation change as he brought on both Diogo Dalot and Matteo Gabbia, switching to a five-man defence.
It turned out to be the recipe for success as the Rossoneri held on without conceding any dangerous chances. Pioli spoke to MilanTV, as you can see in the video below, about the game and also touched on Ibrahimovic’s red card.
“I was focused on the game so I can only rely on what Zlatan told me. He argued with the referee and it went on for a while, but he said he didn’t offend the referee. If he had, he would have apologised but he said that he didn’t. There was a discussion and the referee made his decision.
“Parma used a 4-4-2 with two very physical strikers, in addition to Kucka who was often in the box, at that point I realised we couldn’t press high up and I opted for a five-man defence. We read the game well,” he stated.
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