Head coach Stefano Pioli spoke to DAZN after the Hellas Verona - Milan 1-3 match. Here are his statements:
"I want to wish Joe Barone (Fiorentina's director who has been rushed to the hospital earlier) all the best, hoping that everything goes well for him. I think we interpreted the game well; regarding their goal, we could have been more attentive on the rebound. Clearly, incidents change the mental attitude of the game. We acted as a team, created a lot, ran a lot... Considering that we played on Thursday, I believe it was a very positive game."
The yellow card for Theo Hernandez which will make him miss the Fiorentina match. It seems the yellow card came after protests from Verona's bench:
"It was like that and it's not good, Theo always celebrates like that, he always says 'talk talk'. It wasn't a protest or a lack of respect towards the opposing fans. The Verona coach's intervention caused a dispute, a misunderstanding. But Theo didn't do anything and now we'll have a suspended player. I think you need to talk a lot and well with your own players and leave the other players alone."
On the substitutions in the second half, Pioli said:
"I saw Loftus and Pulisic a bit tired, it's normal, we played less than 72 hours ago. We needed freshness and sharpness, which Musah, Chukwueze, and Giroud provided. We deservedly won."
You chose players with pace... Pioli replied:
"Exactly, we studied our opponents well, who had a week to prepare. They had these characteristics, a lot of pace, many insertions, a lot of speed, and we tried to field our players who have these characteristics."
Samuel Chukwueze, what's his story?
"It's the story of a foreign player who comes to play in a difficult and complicated league, where the demands are certainly different from what he had at Villarreal. He's putting in a lot of effort and commitment to try to do his best. I think judgments are rushed too often and there's no time to wait. They are players who come from a different mentality, a different way of living and training, a different style of play. I'm very happy for the goal and that he's performing well when called upon. We have the necessary patience to wait for all our players."
On Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao:
"They have superior technical and physical abilities, mentally they are very consistent. They are a very strong pair. Opponents should worry... Clearly, they allow us to make other plays and create more space. They are fantastic players and we're enjoying them."
Leao missed a chance to score a goal today... Pioli commented:
"He'll learn from this too. He's learning a lot, he's growing every day in every aspect. Here he wanted to score, but if he passed to Okafor, he had an open goal. I understand that a striker in front of the goal wants to score, but more precision is expected from him in these situations. It was quite easy to pass to Okafor here, but even today he was a significantly dangerous player. He attacked, defended, was important for the team, and that's what matters most."
