AC Milan head coach Stefano Pioli has spoken in an interview given to Milan TV following his team's loss against Napoli in Serie A earlier tonight. Here are his statements:
On the game:
“It was a complicated game, difficult also for the qualities of our opponents. We hadn't given much, however, without building much. The episode of the goal changed the game. The team deserved a draw and they tried until the end”.
On tiredness:
“We pay for absences, they have been going on for a long time. There are players who are playing a lot, these are things you can pay for. But that's the path we wanted, we wanted to be competitive in both competitions. Now comes the decisive moment of the season, we will try to be ready”.
On Thursday's challenge:
“From Sunday to Thursday you recover something, from Thursday to Sunday it is difficult. We had to play a cleaner game, move more. Too many mistakes that did not allow us to command the game as we wanted”.
On the direct clashes with Roma and Napoli:
“It is not the time to think about these things, we have to think about recovering energy and players, now we have a very stimulating inside out match against a very strong opponent. We will have to field a high level performance”.
Too affected in the first half?
“I don't think so, we have always been very careful and balanced. On a technical level, we missed passages that are normally not wrong, did not allow us to make a more continuous performance, created difficulties for us”.
On the performance and the expulsion of Rebic :
“It's a defeat that hurts everything. The performance was not the best possible, Rebic's dismissal are situations that must not happen because we paid for it in the last few minutes and maybe we will pay for it in the next matches for the disqualification .From tomorrow morning we think about the next match with great attention and conviction”.
