Yahoo Sports Conceicao jokes first month at Milan ‘seems like a year’ and labels Calabria case ‘closed’
Sergio Conceicao has joked that his first month at AC Milan has felt like a year, while he urged his team to give their all and win the final Champions League game.
Milan have found themselves in a position that they could have perhaps only dreamt off after losing to Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen in the first two games of the ‘league phase’ in the UCL.
They have won five on the spin since then including victories against Real Madrid and most recently Girona. It means the Rossoneri are now sixth in the table, and can clinch a top eight spot with a win tonight.
Dinamo Zagreb however will be a tricky opponent, not just because they will play in front of a hostile home crowd. They too are in search of three points to try and get into the middle 16 spots, the play-off zone.
On the eve of the game at the Stadion Maksimir and shortly after doing his press conference, Conceicao spoke pitchside to Sky to preview the game, with MilanNews relaying his comments.
You have your destiny in your own hands, how are the team?
“That’s how it is. There’s no time. Today’s was the only training session after the match against Parma, short, because we play tomorrow. It’s not possible to do it any other way. There’s little time to work.
“I like [working on] the field. All the details, everything we talk about, working on the pitch, in my opinion the ideas come quicker. However, what we have we prepared in a different way, we have to go on the pitch and win this match which is the most important thing.”
More Stories / The Match
Conceicao jokes first month at Milan ‘seems like a year’ and labels Calabria case ‘closed’
Watch: Ibrahimovic, Moncada and Kirovski attend UEFA lunch in Zagreb – Furlani absent
How AC Milan secure top eight in the Champions League and last 16 seeding explained
Is the Calabria case closed?
“Case closed. I think that in a football team there are situations that are not the first, not even the last. It was not nice to see, but everything is cleared up, without problems. But this is not important for tomorrow [tonight].
“Tomorrow is for the players to go on the pitch and understand what they have to do, exploit the opponent’s weaknesses but also understand their strengths, because they can still get to the playoffs. It is a decisive match for them, for us too.
“We really want to win this match, because it is the second objective of the season. The first was concluded successfully, the Supercoppa, now tomorrow we have a very important match for all of us at Milan to access the next phase.”
Is it almost an advantage that Dinamo have to attack, to try win and get a play-off spot?
“Fabio has played in different ways. Against Istra he played with a 4-3-3, in London against Arsenal with a five-man line [defensively]. Let’s see how he prepared for this. We have to know both ways they can play, the players who can interpret these modules and what they can do. That’s our job.
“I will give the players all the information possible, but the important thing is our team, what we have to do, where we have to be stronger than in the previous match and where we can improve. We can’t complain about what we have, tomorrow we have to go on the pitch, give our all and win.”
Tomorrow will mark one month at Milan…
“It seems like a year (laughs).”
