Milan boss Stefano Pioli says RB Salzburg have players who could follow in Erling Haaland and Sadio Mané’s footsteps and insists the Rossoneri ‘have forgotten’ their win in the derby.
The Serie A champions make their 2022-23 Champions League debut on Austrian soil tomorrow.
Pioli met the media at a pre-match press conference held at the Red Bull Arena today.
“We forgot about the derby the following day, this is a different competition, we’ll face a tough team, they never lost in the Champions League last season,” the Rossoneri boss said at a press conference as quoted by Milannews.
Pioli and his lads met new Milan owner Gerry Cardinale on Sunday, the day after their 3-2 win in the derby.
“The meeting with Cardinale was positive, he is charismatic and has passion. Milan are a solid club,” Pioli claimed.
“We must play with enthusiasm and respect our opponents, knowing our technical characteristics.
“We have seen all their games, we think we have prepared the game well, our opponents are organised and move well, we respect them but we are very determined,” he continued.
“They have a lot of interesting players who will probably follow in the footsteps of Erling Haaland and Saido Mane, they are a strong team which we respect.”
The Rossoneri are without Alessandro Florenzi, Rade Krunic, Ante Rebic and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, while Yacine Adli was omitted from the Champions League list. Pioli has yet to make a final decision about the line-up.
“I’ll make decisions tomorrow morning, today they all looked in shape and this is important.”
Milan were failed to go beyond the group stage last season, finishing last behind Liverpool, Atletico Madrid and Porto. This time around, they will face RB Salzburg, Chelsea and Dynamo Zagreb in Group E.