Yahoo Sports Guidi bemoans worst half of the season as Milan Primavera crash out of Europe
Head coach Federico Guidi was not best pleased as his Milan Primavera side fell 3-1 at home to Red Star and had their UEFA Youth League campaign ended.
Going into the final game of the initial phase (there are only six matches in the Youth League), Milan knew that they had to win and probably by a few goals to stand a chance of jumping into the top 24.
However, they were well beaten 3-1 by Red Star this afternoon, with the away side having been 3-0 up after just 62 minutes. The result is that they have finished in 27th, a far from ideal scenario.
After the game Guidi gave his thoughts on what has been a rough European ride for his team, which finished in a rather fittingly dire fashion today. His comments were relayed by MilanNews.
How do you reflect on the Youth League journey?
“This year we made a very delicate choice, not only in the league but also in Youth League we decided to field many young players and we knew that every match would be complicated, we face opponents who are more physically mature than us.
“It’s true that we got to the last match playing for everything, we wanted to qualify with all our strength. The flaw we have is that on the one hand we create a lot, but then we are not so clear-headed and concrete in taking them.
“The slip at the end of the first half gave way to the defeat while the second half was the worst [of the season].”
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There were more individual errors…
“We got caught up in the frenzy and the result, we had to be cool and mature. This is a great opportunity for us to grow if we can understand the mistakes, it will be up to me and my staff to make them understand it.”
How will you get going again?
“From a mental point of view, the team must not lose balance, which happened in the second half, and then the quality and courage with which we must react to difficulty.
“If these guys want to play in the football of the big boys, they will have to react with clarity, therefore maturation from the point of view of character. Then I am also satisfied because we create a lot, but we also make too many mistakes. If we improve in our choices, we can score a lot more.”
Now the challenge has to be to focus on the league, where Milan sit fifth after 14 games and just five points away from Fiorentina, knowing they could possibly go into second if they beat Juventus at home on Sunday.
