Milan Primavera in the Youth League final. Abate: “Today is a historic achievement”

It has never happened in history: Milan Primavera is the first Italian team to qualify for the Youth League final. Porto beat on penalties after a 2-2 draw in regulation time; to decide the match, once again, the decisive penalty kicked by captain Zeroli, the authentic driving force of Abate’s Rossoneri. The Rossoneri will face Olympiacos on Monday 22 April at 6pm in Nyon.

Speaking at the microphones of Milan TV in the post match of Porto-Milan, the coach of the Rossoneri Primavera Ignazio Abate he spoke hotly about the great result obtained this afternoon in Nyon by his boys: “Today’s is a historic achievement and in a few years they will remember this group. I’m really proud of them”.

Apart from the beauty of equalizing in this way, even if on the bench you will have experienced it with a little more tension, but when it ends well it’s wonderful to score a goal in the last minute and win on penalties for the third time in a row. I imagine you are so proud of the two years, not just this year, because I remember, looking into his eyes, Milan-Hajduk, different situations, we were more discouraged, but you certainly already had in your eyes the desire to do it again. Nobody would have said it, we did it again and we are in the final:
“Yes, if you think that we are back here, I also told the boys, playing in the finals is something incredible. The path is difficult, difficult, then you know, along the way the matches are always dry, so every detail makes the difference , see today. We had a good first half, as soon as we slowed down the pace a little we missed an exit and they put us away, the quality was high. The second half the game was balanced, we conceded goals from dead balls where for three days we always worked on the corner because they are really good at beating them, and then I believe that another team would not have recovered the heart, desire and enthusiasm of these boys who have it We could have taken the third on the counterattack, but we didn’t lose our head until the end. The changes made the difference, they came in great, and this is what I told them before the match, the group was there brought us to the final, and now we can enjoy it for this evening and from tomorrow we will think about the next one.”

The group also means two guys who were with Mr. Pioli in the Europa League last night, on the bench or in any case in the first team area, they made the journey, they arrived. Kevin Zeroli lost his man on the corner kick but practically scored the equalizer. It means a lot to have guys who respond to you in this way even if sometimes the first team took them away from you:
“You know, Bartesaghi and Zeroli didn’t really work with us this week. They didn’t prepare for the match, and it’s not easy for them. They arrived at the hotel around 11pm, they went to bed late, they made the trip, they wanted to be there for strength, and they were commendable. Kevin, despite the mistake, played a stratospheric game, but also Bartesaghi. I’m proud of them. They absolutely wanted to be there, 99% of the time they will stay with us for the final too, and no, it’s easy not prepare and let the boys understand things only on video. But they did their best, I’m very happy and I told the boys that in my opinion the same things were aligned today and we would go to the final. Going like this is heart-pounding, I remember the 19th /4 of ’89 Milan won the Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid 5-0, maybe I told us ‘It’s good for us’, and it was a sign of destiny, we enjoy it and then we prepare for it next time it will be a difficult match, just as it will be for them (OLympiakos ed.)”.