Sandro Tonali hit back at Inter coach Simone Inzaghi for his comments about the nationality of the referee selected to officiate the second leg of the Champions League semi-final during the pre-match press conference from the Milan camp.
Earlier on Monday afternoon, Inzaghi had touched upon the fact that the designated official, Clement Turpin, is French and that Milan have four French players among their ranks.
Stefano Pioli was asked about the matter when he was sat in front of the press, but refused to be drawn, insisting: “I won’t reply, I won’t reply.”
Tonali, on the other hand, turned to his coach and joked: “I guess we have to find a referee without a nationality.”
Earlier in his press conference, Tonali also insisted that anybody who is chosen to represent Milan in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final against Inter on Tuesday night knows full well the significance of the occasion.
He added that the squad are determined to give everything they have when they step out onto the pitch at the Giuseppe Meazza.
“There’s a lot of emotion, but we have the strength to put that all to one side,” he said. “It’s only one game. We need to concentrate a thousand percent and give absolutely everything. It’s an opportunity to put things right and give everyone a boost.”
Then, Tonali was asked about the discussions the Milan squad had had with the club’s supporters following the loss to Spezia on Saturday.
He confirmed that there were: “Positive feelings, both from us and from the supporters. The fans are always close to us, we are all on the same side and we are all united.
The 23-year-old has also been unlucky not to get on the scoresheet in recent games, having struck the post twice in his previous two appearances.
“It’s too easy to think about those sorts of things,” he said of his misfortune in front of goal. “You have to score goals to be able to change the game.”
He went on to affirm: “There’s no need to say what needs to be done tomorrow, we all know very well.
“Many of our goals at the start of the year didn’t work out as they should have, but when we step out onto the pitch tomorrow, we want to change our fortunes this season. It will make all the difference for us. We wanted to defend our league title and we didn’t succeed, it wasn’t easy. There’s a massive weight to tomorrow’s game.”