Pioli: “We deserved to win. The penalty? Holm touches his face, but Giroud doesn’t hit him

Stefano Pioli fought until the last second. He tried to overturn a difficult match in which only the sharp final was missing. “We had several chances”, confesses the Rossoneri coach bitterly after the match. After all, his Milan tried and tried again, they threw darts and arrows, but Carnesecchi raised the wall, neutralizing everything. Loftus, Pulisic, Calabria and a great Leao – the best – besieged the area, but in the end the ball didn’t enter. “Even tonight we lost points, we deserved to win. We didn’t manage to score an extra goal. This is my Milan’s best match against Atlanta. We put them in difficulty.”

contested penalty

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Refereeing chapter. Pioli spoke like this about the penalty earned by the Goddess for a foul by Giroud against Holm. The Rossoneri coach didn’t like it: “Holm puts his hands on his face and head, but he wasn’t hit there. Furthermore, it’s too little for Orsato’s refereeing standard in general. Not just today, obviously. He’s the referee who calls the fewest fouls in Italy, a European-level match director. But well done to them, if he doesn’t throw himself like this there won’t be a penalty.”

path

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Pioli continues: “Atalanta has a unique way of being on the pitch, so the defense of the ball is different. The three attackers worked well, as did Adli in the covering phase. In Monza we got the approach wrong, but on Thursday we managed the advantage given by the first leg. The rest is our naivety: this year we have suffered several penalties against, but I saw an exaggeration in the referee’s assessments. The next matches are important. They will say everything about our season.”

a great leao

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Leao opened the match with a great goal. He hadn’t scored in Serie A for five months: “He played the best match of the season in terms of continuity and effectiveness – commented Pioli -, he also worked very well in the defensive phase. It all depends on him and his mentality. He will have to try to play matches like this. Our performance must make us understand who we are. This gives us the strength to face the next challenges. At this moment we must think about stabilizing third place and reaching Juventus.”