“The situation needs to be evaluated a bit. We’ll have to wait for training. Leverbe will undergo surgery on Monday, Veloso certainly won’t be back and there are two other players to evaluate. This is the third game of the week and we had a bit of difficulty. Fortunately we have a long squad and it doesn’t worry me.”
Pisa coach Alberto Aquilani spoke like this in the press conference, taking stock of the infirmary in view of the match against SudTirol tomorrow, then looking at the play-off dream: “We have to try to win these two games, if we think about doing ours first, then we’ll understand what will happen. The focus will have to be on tomorrow’s race. It will be a match to be interpreted correctly, to ensure that there are no regrets.”
Then there is room for the future of the coach, always at the center of the market, which however Aquilani glosses over: “I answer as I answered now. Today this type of discussion doesn’t affect me and doesn’t interest me, there are still two very important matches left. They leave me to concentrate and think about my current work.”
A thought also for Masucci who will play his last match at the Arena Garibaldi tomorrow, closing a seven-year experience: “I still don’t know what has been decided, but it could be because I think he has had a wonderful journey. More than two words need to be said towards this man who trained professionally every day. When I arrived I wanted to understand why he was considered everyone’s idol and I understood it because he was always the first to arrive and the last to leave, because he has important values and I can only thank him for what he has given. – continues Aquilani – I certainly could have made him play more, but I always made choices for the good of the team. I would have liked to meet him a few years younger, as I often told him, but young people should take him as an example because with this attitude he could score goals even in 10 years’ time.”.
Then there is room for the opponent of the moment: “It’s not the team we faced in the first leg, it has different concepts and I expect a difficult match. They have less mental stress because they had to save themselves and they will arrive here with a clear mind. We must be aware of wanting to win, the focus must be on performance. If we do that we will have many more opportunities to win.”
SIMEONE’S STORY ABOUT ASTORI, UDINE AND THAT DAMN HOTEL
Simeone: “In Udine I slept in the room where I saw Davide for the last time, he was there with me”
