Ignazio Abate admits Milan “still remember” the 4-0 humiliation by Napoli last season and want to wipe it out this weekend.
The two sides meet again on Saturday evening at San Siro.
“This has always been an important fixture, as yesterday I saw a photograph of Paolo Maldini with Diego Maradona and my mind wanders back to those times,” Abate told Mediaset Premium.
Ignazio Abate admits Milan “still remember” the 4-0 humiliation by Napoli last season and want to wipe it out this weekend.
The two sides meet again on Saturday evening at San Siro.
“This has always been an important fixture, as yesterday I saw a photograph of Paolo Maldini with Diego Maradona and my mind wanders back to those times,” Abate told Mediaset Premium.
“It’ll be a fascinating game to take part in and we hope for a good performance. We’ve always played well this season and will face this match aware that we can get a result.
“We still remember the 4-0 from last season and that’s motivation enough.”
Lorenzo Insigne bagged a brace in that San Siro thrashing, but Milan are now challenging for Europe and fresh from winning the Supercoppa Italiana in Doha against Juventus.
“The Supercoppa was a lovely gift for everyone, but now we’ve got to put it behind us, because there are other objectives to achieve.
“We are working on our weaknesses, as this is a young squad. We’re growing, need to improve more, but are on the right track,” continued Abate.
“In the first half of the season we won everyone’s respect. Now comes the difficult part. Over the next month and a half we’ll decide what the real objective of every team will be.
“We hope to be there in the final sprint for an important target.”