It is the eve of Inter–Milan, whoever wins will challenge the winner between Juventus e Sleep in the semifinal of Italian Cup. A trophy to which Stefano Pioli he holds a lot, as he told Milan TV: “It is a separate competition and in quotation marks it is also easier to deal with mentally. It’s a unique match, whether it’s 90 minutes or 120. A competition we definitely care about, but then the championship will be another story. The next derby in a month, with other important matches in between, so this is just an Italian Cup match, an important quarter-final that we try to face in the best possible way ”.
Italian Cup difficult to win, also considering the scoreboard: “It is clear that there are opponents to face, dangerous opponents, but the will will certainly be to return to the field with a positive performance. It is a competition that we certainly care about, we will do everything to get to the end, because in the end all the great teams in the league find themselves playing the quarter-finals. Of course we weren’t particularly lucky in the draw, because ours is the strongest quadrant, but if you want to win the Italian Cup you have to face them all. We certainly care and will do our best “.
Several were absent from Milan: “As for the injured Bennacer is better but will be available for next Saturday’s match against Bologna. Hakan is not available yet and we have had a couple of issues with Mandzukic, Kalulu e Tonali with Saturday’s game. Only tomorrow morning will we know if they will be available for tomorrow night’s match ”.
Despite the 0-3 with theAtalanta, Milan remained first at the halfway point: “The 43 points remain from the first round as well as the 41 points from the second round of the last championship which is still part of our path. It remains a solid and competitive team but that knows it has to compete with many other very strong and very valid formations. We had proof of this last Saturday, if you can’t maintain certain levels then you risk succumbing to these opponents. Our goal now is to make an even greater effort to try to maintain the same result in the second round ”.
Defeat withAtalanta it was hard to digest: “I didn’t sleep because I watched the game and because I believe that communication with the team the next day is very important in my work. I sleep shortly after the games, both after the ones I won and after the ones I lost because I think knowing how to say the right things to the team is the most important thing. We have little time and play a lot, so communication must be immediate. I made my assessments and the day after I reported them to the team ”.
The pressures on Milan increase: “I believe that in our profession having pressure is a privilege. It means having reached a certain level and we want to stay there, so pressures are welcome. We know the external ones but the internal ones are much more important, the ones we create ourselves. We want to be ambitious and win all games. When we fail, we work even harder to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Pressure is a privilege and we have to live with it. Indeed, we want these pressures because we are in a great club and it is right that there are expectations ”.
his Tomori: “He is a very intelligent and curious boy. He comes from a different football, my English is good but not great. He is attentive, then we have many of his companions who speak the language well. He has nice features, nice qualities, it’s clear he’s only done two workouts. It will take some time to integrate into our mechanisms in the best possible way ”.
OMNISPORT | 25-01-2021 18:58
