On the eve of Milan - Roma, the first leg match of the Europa League quarter-finals, head coach Stefano Pioli was interviewed by Milan TV.
Here are his thoughts on tomorrow's challenge at San Siro.
On the season's matches with Roma:
"We absolutely haven't looked back or revisited the two previous league games when Mourinho was there. De Rossi has changed the positions on the field, changed how the team attacks and defends, but we know them, we know the individual players and we know De Rossi's tactical dictates, we are prepared to face them."
Would you have preferred to face another team instead of this Italian derby?
"Whoever came would have been a tough opponent to beat. Roma is, so could have been Liverpool, Leverkusen, Marseille, Benfica. At this stage of the competition, if you want to go far, you have to do something special, something unique, and play at a very high standard. We arrive well at this game, our opponents also arrive for the victory they had in the derby. But we play at home, in front of our fans, and we want to take all the energy possible to try to start this first act of the quarter-finals well."
How is the team approaching this match?
"We arrive at the decisive moment of the season that will greatly influence the evaluation of our journey. We arrive well, with players in form, good health, motivated, with the right enthusiasm, and with a good level of play. But we must continue, and these two matches will be very important. It's a tough hurdle that we can overcome, and we must do it through our game, our ideas, our quality, attention, and determination. In these two challenges, every single minute we must be very attentive and determined and better than our opponents."
