Milan against Porto is the final crossroads - Pioli
The Rossoneri boss was quizzed about the renewal and he said ‘we are all convinced’ but he emphasized that he is only concentrated on the battle against FC Porto in the Champions League. ‘Tomorrow is the final crossroads’.
, who are leading the Serie A table with
Napoliafter 11 matches, have yet to win a game in Europe this season.
Stefano Pioli insisted on the fans’ importance for tomorrow’s clash against
Portoin the fourth round of the competition.
The manager revealed that he has high ‘expectation’ from his squad and is confident the Rossoneri can get through.
“
A lot, our fans are second to none,”
Pioli said at a press conference.
“Unfortunately, in the Champions League, we weren’t able to give them the satisfaction they deserve.
“Tomorrow, we have an opportunity and I expect a lot from my team.”
The tactician insisted that he is focused on Porto encounter, hopeful that they can earn a place in the knockout stages.
“
We don’t have to think about other games, tomorrow is the final crossroads,”
Pioli continued.
“We believe in it; we have the quality to stop this negative streak of results.
“Then we can sit here and say we deserved more, it’s true, but we have zero points in the standings. Now, we have a game to fix it. In the first leg, we missed many opportunities, we must focus and do something different.
“Then we know what awaits us next Sunday, but it will be another situation.”
The 2-1 victory against the Giallorossi last weekend led to controversy; however, Pioli would not like to think about refereeing decisions.
“
First of all, I believe in one thing,”
he said.
“We won in Rome because we played better and we lost in Porto because we played worse.
“I believe in this and I think about this, not about other situations that I can’t control.
“I evaluated the performance well, I saw the positive things we did, both in terms of tactics and character. Then the opinion that you have outside the club has never worried us, we are focused on our own work and we can’t wase energy on other situations that don’t concern us.
“Tomorrow we have a very important game, we don’t feel we deserve zero points in the standings, but we have an opportunity.
“Against a very strong opponent: we played badly, but Porto played well. We must be at our level and as [Davide] Calabria said, the Champions League is a competition of details.”
Wednesday’s clash is an important one for both sides and Pioli is careful about the opposition team’s strength.
“
They are a strong team, I cannot know the attitude they will have tomorrow night, but I know how they play,”
he said.
“They are aggressive and have quality attacking players.
“We must be aware and precise; we can’t make simple mistakes. We must continue to be proactive and dangerous; we have the possibility to score goals.”
Pioli was pressed whether Olivier Giroud is going to be in the starting XI on Wednesday, but he said the formation is not yet picked.
“We still have the last session; I’ll decide after training this afternoon.”
Paolo Maldini, the club’s technical director, said that Pioli has been the ‘architect’ of Milan’s rebirth and he was questioned about his contract renewal.
“
It’s important to be recognised for your work, I’m very happy with the relationship I have with the club,
” the coach added.
“We are all convinced that we can work well together.”
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