Zlatan Ibrahimovic admits the 1-0 defeat to FC Porto was Milan’s ‘worst performance’ of the season, but the Champions League experience will help their younger players to grow.
It was their third straight loss in the competition, decided by a Luis Suarez strike from the edge of the box, although Medhi Taremi seemed to barge over Ismael Bennacer in the build-up.
“Of the three games, this was our worst performance and therefore we don’t deserve the points,” Ibrahimovic told Mediaset.
“Sometimes you can play badly and still bring points home, but never mind. We have to remember this is the first Champions League for many of our players and they just need to grow.
“You can see in Serie A that they bring that increased experience, tempo and knowledge to the league as well, they grow after every Champions League match.”
The Rossoneri had numerous injury absentees, including Theo Hernandez, Brahim Diaz, Mike Maignan and suspended Franck Kessie.
“We are missing some players, but that’s football. I just returned, I’m happy to play, but need more minutes to get match fitness and form. It’ll arrive slowly.
“There are three games to go. We fought last season to qualify for the Champions League, so as long as it’s possible, we keep fighting. I am confident, the win will come.”
Ibrahimovic: “Tutta esperienza, il Milan è tornato in Champions dopo tanto tempo” https://t.co/TylUzad6he
— TUTTOmercatoWEB (@TuttoMercatoWeb) October 19, 2021
Yes Milan were harried to death and never got a grip on the game. Worse performance by far but it was the worse lineup so par for the course.
Milan are not at the European level. It was sad to watch that but hopefully the team can learn from it..Italin football in general is in a bad place with no Italian club capable of cahllenging for the UCL trophy.
Serie A teams should be banned from the Champions League. Another pitiful performance.
@micah97 and @Tony- You guys should relax or better still go home and sleep. Milan against Liverpool and Athletico deserve to win in those 2 matches, saying they are not at European Level is just talking too much without making any sense, let Liverpool or Athletico play without 4 top stars and lets see how they will fare. These guys played 3 days ago, missing 4 key players and they are playing the same way in the UCL and you are not talking about putting that into consideration. Keybord Analyst.
Up to Juve to salvage Italian pride in CL
No one going to salvage a thing Marco they will out be gone by round of 16
I’ll give it to Ralph. These fans are becoming like the Englisman and react too quick . Watch the re-match at San Siro and let’s be honest the refereeing went (willingly or not) aggainst them in vital points.
Anyway all they can do now is give their best next time..
ha ha ha up to Juve to salvage pride. They are the worst performers out of all the Italian teams as they are choke artists. Napoli are leading the table but playing in the Europa League. Roma are in the Conference League. It is so sad to see the Italian teams become the British clubs of the 1990’s where they were the whipping boys.
Lol go back to farming, Milan.
And you angry why donnarumma move to psg. Perhaps next time take a good look at yourself before booing ppl.
@Ralph.
Milan did NOT deserve to beat Liverpool lol. They could have been hammered.
As for Italian teams as a whole, they are nowhere near good enough for this level. How many years of failures do we need to see before people pull their head out of the sand?
“Deserve this” and “deserve that” doesn’t mean much. You need to go out and do it – and Italian clubs just aren’t capable. And that’s what happens when the league is run so incompetently and sells its best young players to finance old has-beens on huge wages from the epl.
There’s some fine players in Serie A, but there isn’t one top team in it.
Liverpool could have gone either way, Athletico we got robbed, NO DOUBt ABOUT IT, are are facing 2 of the best teams in Europe.. and you have the nerves to saw we didn’t deserve to be there, we could have easily been at 4 points now in the toughest group.. I mean CMON look at Inters group. Shame on you. Milan is THE team with so young players who actually performs. PERIOD. Milan yesterday was the ONLY game in a year they played horrible
@micah97 You should keep your mouth shut as you speak so much rubbish. Again, played level with Atletioc (should have won that game) and Liverpool.
@marco, great wake me up in 20 years when Ladri MIGHT do something outside of Serie A.
They had one of the best player’s of the modern Era, if not ever, and what did the almighty Jube achieve? That’s right, FAILURE outside of Italy….AGAIN !
I do think Milan can win the Serie A this year..if they forget UCL and focus on the league alone.
The hard truth is that No Italian club is elite..I would be surprised if any reaches Quarter finals.
The league has been run badly…clubs get blocked when they try to build private stadiums to make more money…the result is that no one can keep their top players..not Juve( CR7) Not Inter( Lukaku, Hakimi) not Milan( Donnarumma) Not Atalanta( Romero, Castagne). The league keeps losing top talents to other leagues. Why? Because our clubs don’t have the money to compete in the market.
Milan are a young team built on a small budget..same with Atalanta..Inter and Juve have a policy of signing Veterans to dominate Italy and disappoint in Europe…..no Italian club holds onto elite players in their prime.
We will not see an Italian UCL champ for at least another decade I think….Our clubs just cannot compete on this level both on and off the pitch.
Viktor
No, the Liverpool game could have been the utter destruction of Milan lol. Micah 97 didn’t say anything that wasn’t the truth.
Name one Italian side u can see challenging for the CL trophy this season. U said Micah 97 is talking rubbish – so if so, name ONE.
U talk plenty of rubbish on here too – last year u said that Calhanoglu and Donnarumma were going nowhere lol. Looks like Kessie is next.
Not to mention u going on about Bennacer – he was a joke last night.
This Milan squad is youngsters and oaps assembled on the cheap. No top player is going to spend his career at Milan – or Serie A – anymore. Not until things change and people, like yourself, quit making the same excuses year after year after year.
For people who are saying Serie A and Italian teams are not good enough, you are all correct, the teams in the Premier league, PSG are doing will and cant compete simply because football is a money game, whoever has the most money, football is not a sport anymore.
However considering this Serie A teams are not getting slaughtered in the champions league.
People are saying Milan are not at the European level, they are correct but not taking into consideration that its the first time some of the players have played in the league so of course they wont be the top guns, yet they are not being slaughtered.
As a Milanista I dont expect anything special from our players, just experience and to grow, learn, they are not as bad as people are saying but people do like to hate and make drama out of nothing.
@ricky – Milano qualified for the CL for the first time in 8 years – only to end up with the same amount of points accrued in those 8 years thus far. A big fat 0.0000 pts
But ya Juve the choke artists…?