Milan coach Stefano Pioli said ‘we are all convinced’ when asked about the renewal but stressed he’s only focused on the match against FC Porto in the Champions League. ‘Tomorrow is the final crossroads’.
The Rossoneri, who sit first in Serie A tied on points with Napoli after 11 games, are still without a win in Europe this term.
Pioli pointed at the importance of the fans at San Siro tomorrow, when Porto arrive for the return leg in the fourth round of the competition.
The coach said he ‘expects’ a lot from his men against the Portuguese side and believes Milan still have a chance to go through.
“A lot, our fans are second to none,” Pioli said at a press conference. “Unfortunately, in the Champions League, we weren’t able to give them the satisfaction they deserve.
“Tomorrow, we have an opportunity and I expect a lot from my team.”
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And Pioli said he only focuses on the match against Porto, continuing to believe in a possible place in the knockout stages.
“We don’t have to think about other games, tomorrow is the final crossroads,” Pioli continued. “We believe in it, we have the quality to stop this negative streak of results.
“Then we can sit here and say we deserved more, it’s true, but we have zero points in the standings. Now, we have a game to fix it. In the first leg, we missed many opportunities, we must focus and do something different.
“Then we know what awaits us next Sunday, but it will be another situation.”
The 2-1 win against Roma in Serie A last weekend caused controversy, but Pioli doesn’t want to focus on refereeing decisions.
“First of all, I believe in one thing,” he said. “We won in Rome because we played better and we lost in Porto because we played worse.
“I believe in this and I think about this, not about other situations that I can’t control.
“I evaluated the performance well, I saw the positive things we did, both in terms of tactics and character. Then the opinion that you have outside the club has never worried us, we are focused on our own work and we can’t wase energy on other situations that don’t concern us.
“Tomorrow we have a very important game, we don’t feel we deserve zero points in the standings, but we have an opportunity.
“Against a very strong opponent: we played badly, but Porto played well. We must be at our level and as [Davide] Calabria said, the Champions League is a competition of details.”
The match on Wednesday is crucial for both teams and Pioli is wary of the Portuguese giants’ strength.
“They are a strong team, I cannot know the attitude they will have tomorrow night, but I know how they play,” he said. “They are aggressive and have quality attacking players.
“We must be aware and precise, we can’t make simple mistakes. We must continue to be proactive and dangerous; we have the possibility to score goals.”
Pioli was asked if Olivier Giroud will start on Wednesday, but stressed he has not picked his formation.
“We sill have the last session, I’ll decide after training this afternoon.”
Technical director Paolo Maldini said Pioli has been the ‘architect’ of Milan’s rebirth and the coach was asked about the renewal of his contract.
“It’s important to be recognised for your work, I’m very happy with the relationship I have with the club,” the coach added. “We are all convinced that we can work well together.”