After the 1-0 victory against Napoli, AC Milan's head coach, Stefano Pioli, said these words to the microphones of Sky Sport Italia:
"Above all, the joy of experiencing evenings like this together with our fans. The club's history speaks of many victories in the Champions League, but then the paths are different. We come from a three-year period in which we dreamed of being at these levels: we enjoyed the atmosphere before the game. We started building poorly in the back. It's the first time we've won at home against Napoli in three years. It's only the first half. We also had a bit of luck at the beginning, but we never lost our balance and distances, always working with concentration and sacrifice in the non-possession phase. In the last 10 minutes with numerical superiority, there was a lack of clarity and energy to do something more: there is a bit of regret for the missed second goal, but it's still a positive result to go to Napoli and play the second leg."
Pioli added:
"It's clear that we have a strategy, a game plan. Then it depends on the opponents, and today Napoli was more aggressive. Then the mental aspect makes the difference: going ahead or behind changes a lot. 1-0 is a good result, but the percentages of passing to the next round do not change: before the game, I thought it was 50%, and that remains unchanged. It's nice to dream at night, but it's much more important to work during the day to try to achieve your dreams."
Pioli concluded:
"I think that the journey of these three years has been fantastic, but we have always thought one step at a time. The goal is to move forward, but now we focus on the league. Krunic? Rade is doing a great job both defensively and in the construction phase. They were very good at closing the central passing lanes, and we tried too many passes inside."
