Davide Calabria maintains the Champions League must be ‘Milan‘s home’ and believes the Rossoneri have learned a lot from last season’s games with Liverpool and Porto.
“We are looking forward to getting started,” the Italy international said at a press conference at the Red Bull Arena, as quoted by Milannews.
“We have prepared really well and we can’t wait to start. The Champions League must be Milan’s home.
“We’ll do our best in this competition. We look at one game at a time and we set no limit for ourselves. I hope we’ll be able to do what Paolo [Maldini] did. Is what we aspire to.”
The Rossoneri were eliminated from the Champions League group stage last season, finishing last behind Liverpool, Porto and Atletico Madrid.
They lost both meetings with the Reds. The first was a 3-2 loss at Anfield in a match that saw Mike Maignan save a Mo Salah penalty. The second one was a 2-1 loss at San Siro, which ended the Rossoneri’s hopes to qualify for the Round of 16.
Calabria believes he and his teammates have learned from those defeats and sees new signings able to help the team go beyond the group stage this term.
“I think last season was one of the most difficult ones in the Champions League, but playing at this level makes you grow. The team is more mature, the pace is higher and we are ready to play,” the defender said.
“Charles [De Ketelaere] doesn’t lack talent, he is good with the ball at his feet and has the right tempo. I don’t think Divock Origi was in such good shape, he is really strong and he can help this season.
“Surely the games with Liverpool and Porto helped us, they made us understand the intensity of this competition. There is more intensity compared to Serie A and now we have what we lacked last season.”
The Rossoneri captain spoke to the media after his boss Stefano Pioli had said Milan have already forgotten about the derby and ‘respect’ RB Salzburg.