At the end of Milan-Hellas Verona, a match that ended 1-0 this evening at San Siro, AC Milan coach Sergio Conceicao did not attend the press conference from inside the stadium to comment on the Rossoneri's performance due to the passing of Pinto da Costa, the former Porto president to whom he was very close. In his place, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, senior advisor to Milan, spoke.
On whether Milan needs to improve on Tuesday:
"Today we dominated the game. I know it wasn’t an easy match, with an opponent that defends and closes all spaces: if you unlock it early, spaces open up, and it becomes a different match. The more time passes without scoring, the harder it gets. Tuesday will be completely different—it's the Champions League against a team that plays and won’t come here just to defend. They will play their game, but so will we. We need Milan at the top to get a result."
On the difficulty of attacking against closed defenses, Ibrahimovic said:
"The structure is designed to bring the ball into the box, where individual quality must then make the difference. Gimenez was in the right place at the right time today; at that point, it’s about instinct—it can go well or not. The collective is well-structured, but in the end, the ball arrives, and you have to take that final step to score."
On Milan collecting 14 points in 7 matches under Conceicao:
"Since Conceicao arrived, he has earned 14 points, and Napoli has earned 15. Almost the same as Napoli, who are at the top of the table. We have a lot of confidence in what he’s doing; the team is improving. He hasn't had much time, with matches coming every three days. Ideally, we would have beaten Dinamo Zagreb, also to recover some players. Even this upcoming week, we could have had some rest. We have great confidence, we truly believe in what we’re doing. We have full faith in Conceicao: what is written in the newspapers is all made up—it is not true that I argued with Conceicao."
On satisfaction with how the team takes corners and free kicks, Ibrahimovic replied:
"Today, they tried to put the ball in the box from time to time. The team prepared some set plays before the match—if they work, great; if not, they don’t. They’re secrets (smiles). The important thing is to score goals."
