The Rossoneri coach commented on the 0-0 draw at the Stadium: “There was a reaction and I’m happy with my players – he explained -. We fought until the end and obtained a positive result. How do I isolate myself from the rumors in the newspapers? I don’t read anything anymore. It’s clear that mistakes may have been made, but this team has the potential to do well.”
JUVE-MILAN 0-0: THE HIGHLIGHTS
A reaction was needed after a difficult week and in the end a precious point arrived to keep Juve away from second place. He is satisfied Stefano Pioli after the 0-0 draw at the Stadium and now one step away from arithmetic qualification for the Champions League: “We are going through a delicate moment, so reacting like this, with this desire to sacrifice ourselves, was important – said the coach of Milan -, against a team that wanted to bring us closer in the standings, which has the qualities to put us in difficulty. I think the boys interpreted the match well, then it’s clear that we can do better from a finishing point of view and in the last pass, but we sacrificed ourselves to get an important point and I’m happy with the players. There was a particular atmosphere, without our fans to support us, we fought until the end and this is a good reaction. I think that in the first half we had a very good performance, in the second the energy dropped, Juve brought in a lot of attackers and crushed us, but we defended with will and spirit because we knew that not losing was a positive result for us. Stimuli for the season finale? We work on our pride, on the desire to do well until the end. We wear an important shirt and we have fans all over the world, we have to do well until the end because we owe it to ourselves, to the club and to everyone.”
“We took our game plan to the end”
“Their left chain is expert, they have legs, so we tried to move them a bit, to change positions a bit, but we didn’t always succeed – he added regarding the tactical preparation of the match -. Certainly we expected them more, also knowing their characteristics and the absences we had in defense. We preferred to do a little more density, then it’s the results that determine the judgments: if Juve scored, it would be said that we defended ourselves too low, but I liked the spirit. It’s important when a team has a game plan to see it through to the end and today we did that, with great collaboration. We are in a delicate moment, so I am satisfied with the performance of my players. I liked Pulisic, Chukwueze is also fine but at the moment I don’t give up a midfielder to play more offensively, so he is a bit more sacrificed.”
in-depth analysis
Thiaw is the best: Juve-Milan report cards
“Newspaper rumours? I haven’t read anything in a while…”
It is also inevitable to talk about the future: “How do I isolate myself from the newspapers? I haven’t read anything for a long time, but I have friends who send me messages even if I ask them not to – explained Pioli -. I put great concentration into it, trying to do well in all matches, with the serenity to help the team get to the end well. We want to finish second and score as many points as possible. It’s clear that I may have made some mistakes, the season could have been better, but if we have gained so many points behind Inter, the others are even worse. This means that they did exceptional things, we were at a good level but we weren’t able to keep up. There are many things that can be done better, it is a team that has changed a lot. We have suffered difficult moments but this is a group that has the potential to do well.”
