Former Milan defender Alessandro Costacurta said Liverpool ‘deserved’ the win on Wednesday. ‘They dominated for 75 minutes. They are much stronger’.
The 55-year-old, who retired in 2007, spent 22 years at Milan and helped the club win five European Cups, seven Scudetti and one Coppa Italia.
Milan returned to the Champions League for the first time in seven years and the former centre-back and believes they have a big gap to fill before they can compete with the biggest teams in Europe.
“I didn’t see this beautiful match by Milan,” Costacurta told Sky Sport Italia. ”I think they were dominated and under pressure for 75 minutes, despite 10 excellent minutes in the first half.
“At some point you can lose your clarity and it’s easy to make mistakes. I believe Liverpool’s victory is well deserved and I think they deserved an extra goal too.
“In my opinion, Liverpool are much stronger than Milan. It’s possible to decrease this difference, but I believe it’s still very big.”
Imo the difference is more related to experience rather than quality. Once we bridge that gap, the quality of this team of youngsters will also emerges.
Although Milan have a young and inexperienced squad at UCL level, this game once again highlighted the gap in speed and intensity of the top PL sides and the top Seria A sides. It continues to be a wake up call to Italian club football that while technique and tactics are important, so is speed and intensity and Serie A clubs must adapt to this as they don’t face it week-in-week out in the Italian top flight.
Frankie didn’t Atalanta win in Liverpool last season ??
Frankie I think it’s more related to the size of the club’s bank account.
Costacurta is correct. Liverpool is probably 1 of maybe 3 squads in the world that can play that highly organized closing press for 90mins. Liverpool dominated for 3/4 of the match for sure. However, it can be countered if coached properly but Milan just doesn’t have experience with countering this press. The difference maker for Liverpool is Fabinho…total class in the middle of the park. At times…he was box to box and Milan had no answer.