‘Milan has built a strong squad’, says Pioli after 3-2 win at Verona

Stefano Pioli

’s men were two goals down after 24 minutes, but they produced a superb second half as they came from behind to beat

3-2 at San Siro on Saturday night.

The visitors had a comfortable halftime lead thanks to a

Gianluca

Caprari

goal and an

Antonin Barak

penalty, but

Olivier Giroud

cut the gap in half with a 59th-minute header.

The Rossoneri then turned the game around in two minutes, with

Franck Kessie

equalizing from the penalty spot and

Koray Gunter

’s own goal.

“It was a struggle, that’s true, it was complicated from the get-go, but the lads showed great character,”

Pioli

told

Sky Sport Italia

.

“Verona were stronger in the first half, better in the duels, intensity, in getting on the second ball, so they created more dangerous situations. Clearly we needed to step up a gear and improve, but I saw belief in the team at the break. It was a real show of maturity.

“What we need is maturity and consistency. If you want to aim big, you have to focus on the small things first, take every detail one at a time.

“This is the proof that the club has built a strong squad, because even with so many absentees, I still have a competitive side and many choices to make with different characteristics.”

Do the comeback victory and the number of problems they had mean that Milan are real contenders to win the Scudetto?

“This is a very important victory, it’s worth three points. Our fans again gave us so much energy during difficult moments tonight. It’s a journey, we are trying to find consistency, but there are so many big teams with great quality.

“As I said, we want to be competitive to the end, we’ll keep taking it one game at a time, focus on the small things for the big picture.”

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