The Portuguese coach: “The opponent’s strategy in Italy is to waste time, the referee must give a longer stoppage time”
The Super Cup effect lasts until the start of the match, time for celebrations and the usual photos. Then, Milan comes back down to earth on the San Siro lawn: in his first match as coach in Serie A (and his home debut), Sergio Conceiçao stumbles against Cagliari without going beyond a 1-1 draw. “I expected much, much more, at all levels”, he admits disappointedly to Sky Sport. “Since I have been a coach, that is 13 years, if I compare the quality of this group to what I saw on the pitch it was the weakest first half I have ever seen. The second half was better. I understand that the opponent’s strategy is falling to the ground in Italy, but the referee has to give more than five minutes of injury time. It’s an excuse, each of us should have done more, but I have to tell you some things because I feel them.”
conceiçao: “my attackers are altruistic”
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There were many errors in the second half, between the chances wasted by Pulisic and Abraham up to the blunder of Maignan, who was let in by Zortea. “My attackers are unselfish, and I like that. Sometimes they have to be simpler, it always seems like they have to make the magic touch. Football is simple.” Then the analysis of the match: “We did everything as we prepared it. We lacked a bit of breadth and when we had it we were a bit too still. The problems were mental and physical. Some moments I didn’t like them at all. It’s me, with them, who has to get out of this situation. If we become more demanding outside the match, we will be more demanding during it too.”
leao: “we deserved more”
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Rafael Leao also spoke to Sky Sport to analyze the match: “We wanted to win and get up in the standings. The first half seemed a bit strange to me, the second was better. We scored, then with their counterattacks we we got stuck. We deserved another match for what we created.” Then a comment on the solutions introduced by the new coach: “Conceiçao brought the desire to always be in the opponent’s half of the pitch with the ball at his feet. We always try to push them further back. He put his ideas into it, now it’s up to us players to understand exactly how to interpret them. He always leaves me free, the rest is in feeling the game and understanding where to go.”
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