Stefano Pioli concedes the draw with Bologna was ‘a missed opportunity’ for Milan, but refutes the suggestion they buckled under the pressure of being leaders. ‘The Scudetto race will go down to the last two rounds.’
The Rossoneri fired blanks in the 0-0 draw with Bologna at San Siro, despite 33 attempts on goal.
Serie A | Milan 0-0 Bologna: Scudetto push stalls at San Siro
It changes the momentum of the Scudetto race, as Inter are four points behind with a game in hand – to be played away to Bologna – and Napoli are just one point adrift of the leaders.
This was also Pioli’s 100th Serie A match on the Milan bench and he had been hoping for a better result to celebrate with.
“It’s easy to analyse this evening’s game. We were unable to find that little moment, the final ball, the twist, the shot that could change it. We did everything else,” the coach told Sky Sport Italia.
“These are matches where if you break the deadlock early, they become easier, otherwise they are extremely tough. We worked very well off the ball against a rugged side, but not as well with the ball at our feet.”
Pioli was asked if Milan had buckled under the pressure caused by Inter’s win away to Juventus and Napoli beating Atalanta 3-1.
“I totally exclude the idea it was a psychological issue. The team played with the right character, temperament and mentality, even with quality up until the final third.
“At the moment, we are creating a lot of chances and not finishing them, that is the truth shown by the statistics. We are playing our football, but not finishing the opportunities.
“I have no complaints about this team other than we need to be sharper and more efficient in the penalty area. We play every game to win, so naturally it was a missed opportunity, especially in front of our fans.”
Bologna had their chances too, especially in the first half, and we are seeing in general this season that the so-called minnows are very tough to beat.
“I expected these difficulties and every team will face them. I won’t lie, on paper it looked like a favourable weekend for us, but football is not played on paper and our advantage has been cut.
“We have another very tough match coming up, Torino have taken points off both Inter and Juventus. I think it will certainly be a title race that goes down to the last two rounds.
“My team has proved it is alive and kicking, it has quality and deserves to be up there challenging to the end.”
Considering the poor record that Milan have against the smaller clubs, is it fair to suggest they struggle when the opponents clam up in defence?
“Bologna played well in the first half, they were pretty open and we had some counter-attacks we should’ve done better on. Naturally, Bologna then closed up and made it difficult for us to find spaces, so either you have a lot of quality in one-on-one situations or you do well on set plays, otherwise there’s little way through.”
Pioli: “33 tiri, il Milan ha fatto la partita in tutto e per tutto. Ci è solo mancato il guizzo” https://t.co/aZvZ8hPcwb
— TUTTOmercatoWEB (@TuttoMercatoWeb) April 4, 2022
Good coach but never a winner. Milan will never achieve the biggest prizes with nice guys. Conte would be blowing a gasket if he were in charge and that is the difference.
There’s nothing conte can do with this crop of players. You can tell when he got the Tottenham job. Our team is not worthy of being Italian Champions. The Title will be between Napoli and juventus. Juve thinks they’ve lost too much but they are back and Inter And Ac will still drop many points. I’m tipping Napoli
Considering the poor record that Milan have against the smaller clubs, is it fair to suggest they struggle when the opponents clam up in defence?”
Yes. Been saying this for months.