PRESS CONFERENCE | Ranieri after Milan-Cagliari
Thus Claudio Ranieri after the 5-1 defeat at home to AC Milan. The words of the red and blue coach to the media in the belly of the ‘Giuseppe Meazza’.
ANALYSIS
“We didn’t deserve such a heavy result, we fought all the way, even at 3-1, clearly by opening up, Milan then managed to get into spaces. We needed to be less timid, but more decisive in lunging when we had the chance. I’m sorry, now we play for everything in the next two games. Message to the fans? Disappointment is understandable, but today was a game in which we had to do everything we could, Milan wanted to react and we knew it would be very hard, we played our game and created our chances, it’s a shame to leave with this scoreline but let’s move on. I think it’s exaggerated to reproach my team, it’s clear that we hoped to achieve more and do better, we didn’t succeed and we’ll have to work again to be ready for Sassuolo. In the meantime let’s see the results between tomorrow and Monday, then we’ll go to Reggio Emilia with hunger and aggressiveness, the one that maybe some of the observers didn’t notice today, not taking into account the strength of Milan, the speed at which they play and with which they move the ball and the opposing team”.
COMPLEX MATCH
“We tried, in the first half we were compact but a little shy in attacking, the only criticism I made to the boys. In the second half we were a bit disunited, as soon as we unbalanced to recover Milan hurt us as they do. Five goals is a bit too many, it’s a shame. Let’s look ahead, today we were aware that we needed to be carefree to hurt Milan, we created some chances and managed them not at our best, now there’s the final sprint and we’ll fight to reach the goal we have since day one”.
THE PATH
“We have the last two games left, we know that everything is decided, either we save ourselves or go back to Serie B: I’ll have to be good at managing the week, depending on the tension in the dressing room. We knew it was going to be tough until the end, that today was a wild card game where we could pick up something or nothing, unfortunately it went the latter way: we didn’t come here to go for a walk, but to play it trying as we did against Inter, Atalanta and Juventus, unfortunately this time it didn’t go well. The team felt a bit the weight of responsibility, I told them to play calmly and instead they didn’t make it. How many points do we need? I don’t know, a lot will depend on the match in Reggio Emilia, we’ll prepare it well as Neroverdi will, we live from day to day and stay on the ball. Goal problem? The lads up front have shared the task, the many goals conceded are a burden, too many for the way I see football, but it’s useless to recriminate, let’s think about Sassuolo with the utmost determination and awareness”.
