AC Milan boss, Stefano Pioli, presents the game against Hellas Verona away from home to the media today.
The former Fiorentina tactician had this to say in the beginning:
"It's nice to face an away match with a lot of fans. They give us a great boost. All the matches will have a great weight. We faced the week with great motivation. Verona are a good team, the time has come to show that we are the best."
On how to approach the game against Hellas Verona:
"We have to have a great attitude throughout the match and believe in it until the end."
Pioli added:
"We are a balanced team, we want to dominate the games and put our heart into it like Real Madrid in the Champions League a few days ago. Ibrahimovic? His presence is important for us and decisive and he is giving so much to help us."
AC Milan and Inter, do they have different sets of mentalities?
"This is not the time. Now we are missing 7 points to do something extraordinary and to show that we are the best in this league. We have to play for Milan, then if we win 1-0 or with a few more goals, the important thing is to be a team and play with emotion."
Pioli on the Hellas Verona team:
"Verona will do everything to beat us and we will do the same. Their trio is formidable and full of quality. We will have to be very compact and clear-headed to put them in difficulty."
Three games remain, is the one against Hellas Verona the most difficult?
"Yes, because it is the next game. All the teams want to do well to improve their score and we will have to face all the matches carefully."
Do you have a mature squad for the rest of the season?
"I always see them on track and motivated, they are managing these emotions well. They are young guys but they come from two years of work, success and disappointment. We have already faced these challenges in the past and tomorrow's will be just as difficult. We have prepared it well."
On Carlo Ancelotti:
"Ancelotti is a legend and I think he is a top in everything, capable of winning 5 Championships. He knows how to enter the players' heads and their hearts."
Milan's last penalty was against Spezia. If you have a penalty tomorrow, who takes it?
"We have always shown our penlaty takers. But, on the pitch, the players can change the situation among themselves. There are some who have to shoot it."
On Hellas Verona's Antonin Barak:
"He has both technique and physicality. The more we put him and his side in difficulty, the more we will be able to defend better."
Some referees made mistakes, so maybe not everything depends on Milan...
"Everything we can control depends on Milan. Our attitudes, our qualities Then there are those who have to make other choices and we will respect them."
On the pressure:
"I don't see my players agitated. Neither anxious. I see them motivated and we have to be focused because a small stop can make a difference. In this aspect I recognize a great growth of the group, I thought I had to be here to calm them every day instead I see them serene and happy. We must continue on this path that has allowed us to go up and up. We must strengthen these convictions."
Is there a phrase or an image that describes the AC Milan locker room:
"Yes, but we don't want to reveal it. It is not the time", declared coach Stefano Pioli.
On the Athletic trainers who were criticised in the past:
"They know very well what I think of our work, I'm responsible: they propose and then I decide. Too many times we give importance to the physical part and less to the technical-tactical one. We have never had peaks either in one direction or in the other."
Some wrote: 'Milan are best in the worst'. What do you say?
"I read and I didn't like it, but that's okay. Someone even still criticizes Ancelotti, so everything is allowed."
On rotating between Rafael Leao and Ante Rebic on the left flank:
"It depends on the game, both of them can do well both on the right and on the left."
Who should start between Alexis Saelemaekers and Junior Messias tomorrow?
"I don't think that there is much difference between the two offensively and defensively, just a change in the preferred foot. They are two attacking players who then have to work also in the defensive phase."
It was a very difficult game against Hellas Verona last time...
"From a tactical point of view it will be similar: there will be many suffocating markings. Finding space will be important."
