Pioli adamant Milan on right track other than ‘distractions’

Stefano Pioli remains adamant Milan’s first half against PSG was ‘what we wanted’ and blames ‘distractions’ for the goals. ‘The Newcastle result is the only positive’ as the group is still open.

The goals were scored today by Kylian Mbappé, then Randal Kolo Muani turned in the rebound from a Mike Maignan save before Kang-in Lee completed a sweeping counter-attack for the 3-0 result.

“I think our first half was what we wanted and we did it well, then all it took was a distraction at half-time and the failure to double up the marking to concede the opener,” Pioli told Sky Sport Italia and Amazon Prime Video Italia.

“However, the second goal was one we absolutely should not have conceded, as we had all the right conditions to avoid that. We needed more focus and organisation and it made everything far more difficult.

“I think that for 60 minutes we played if anything better than PSG. I cannot reproach my players for their attitude, it was just that PSG did better on a technical level.

“We can certainly do better, but at the moment we are getting punished for every little mistake. It has to act as motivation for us to do better, because the level of the competition is very high, just as it is in the top games in Italy. We have the ability to do better.”

The Rossoneri have become the first Italian side ever to go five consecutive Champions League games without scoring a goal, having failed to find the net in both legs of last season’s semi-final against Inter too.

“It is certainly incredible, though again we did create chances tonight and had the opportunity to at least equalise.”

The group remains fairly open, as Newcastle United suffered a surprise 1-0 home defeat to Borussia Dortmund this evening.

That means PSG are now top with six points, but Borussia Dortmund and Newcastle are on four, with Milan still on two.

“The result in Newcastle is the only positive from today and we need to make the most of that. I don’t know if we have to win the remaining three or not, but we must believe and do better. We have the quality to win those games.

“We made lots of little mistakes that stopped our counter-attacks or allowed them to counter, so it was far more important to improve the passing and create that pressure. Instead, misplaced passes saw us lose momentum too easily.

“We must continue working, because by raising the quality level, I still feel we are doing the right things. PSG had a strong press, played the way we expected in terms of strategy and intensity. We tried to mirror that and I think we did in the first half, but paid for a distraction and conceded the goal.”

Rafael Leao had another surprisingly poor performance and seems to be lacking in confidence, especially in his finishing.

“Rafa shoots to score goals. He might not be finding the goal with the ease that he did in the past, but he was present in attack today, had to work one against one on Marquinhos and often managed to create dangerous situations.”