Once again two Italians face each other in Europe. After the all-Milan semi-final in the last Champions League, this time they will compete in the quarter-finals of the Europa League Milan And Rome. A match between two of the best teams in Italy, with the Rossoneri having won 5 victories in a row (the last one at home against Lecce) and with the Giallorossi who, with Daniele De Rossi on the bench, they lost only two games: against Inter in Serie A and the one (irrelevant for qualification purposes) against Brighton in EL.
Pioli: “Milan not far from Real City”
The Rossoneri coach Stefano Pioliin the press conference, analyzes tomorrow’s match and praises his team’s play: “On paper, in terms of mentality, tomorrow will be a good challenge, a good show, potentially also for the individual players’ play. If for fun our goal is to reach Real-City levels? Last year we reached the semi-final of the Champions League, even if we played it at a time when we didn’t have the best condition, but we were there. I don’t think we’re far apart: we still have to grow a little, but I don’t think we’re far away. It’s true that the Europa League is a step below the CL, but there are strong teams like Bayer Leverkusen or Liverpool. Nobody would be surprised if we or they played in the most important European competition. Tomorrow there will be the atmosphere of a European match, played over 180 minutes. It’s true that the Champions League is the Champions League, and despite the absolute technical value, even yesterday in Real-City there were errors on the first goals. The important thing is to keep playing when it happens, like they did: for a team it is essential to go beyond mistakes and play as you know“.
“The teams change against Milan”
Returning to the topic of the match against Roma: “I believe that tomorrow De Rossi will have the best team on the pitch: the Europa League is an important objective for them, as for us. He is doing an important job: I’m not referring to the game, but to the fact that he is credible in the eyes of the team, making the players give him total availability. We know each other well. Many teams play one way and then, when they face Milan, they change their strategy because they know our offensive players well“.
Rossoneri without Tomori: “He has speed and aggressiveness characteristics that others don’t have. But Thiaw and Kjaer are fine, I will always choose based on the opponent“. Finally, is this Milan stronger than the Scudetto one? Pioli responds like this: “That Milan achieved an incredible victory, this one is trying to win again. It’s a different team, with a different way of playing“.
