Champions League, Fonseca: "In the second half we played fantastically"

Leverkusen (Germany), 1 October 2024 – The Milan still remains empty-handed in Champions League: after the clear defeat suffered in their debut against Liverpool, the Rossoneri have made some decisive steps forward but it was not enough to conquer the Bay Arena in Leverkusen. To the Bayer landlord In fact, a goal from Boniface in the 51st minute was enough to bring home this success and leave zero in the points box for Fonseca's men. A victory achieved at the end of a match with two faces: Bayer were decidedly better in the first half of the game, in which the Germans put Milan under pressure with their intensity and created several dangerous opportunities, with Boniface scoring, which was later disallowed for offside. The Nigerian striker then made up for it at the start of the second half, breaking the deadlock at the end of a beautiful move, but right after the goal, Bayer's fuel ran out and Milan re-emerged, taking control, creating several goal-scoring opportunities of their own (Theo Hernandez also hit the crossbar and Morata grazed the post) and complaining about a foul on the penalty area line against Loftus-Cheek. Despite the defeat, however, AC Milan coach Paulo Fonseca – speaking to Sky Sport – tried to see the glass half full and praised some aspects of his team’s performance: “We didn’t win but this was the game I liked the most since I arrived here at Milan. I think that especially in the second half we played a fantastic game, creating many chances. We lacked the goal, we didn’t convert the opportunities we created but it wasn’t easy against a team like Bayer. We are sad and disappointed but we also need to have balance and know how to evaluate everything we did. I am satisfied, certainly not for the result but for the courage we had and the way we played”. On the missed penalty against Loftus-Cheek: “What is strange for me is that VAR didn’t intervene. For me this intervention was on the line and therefore they should have called the penalty. They didn’t even look at it. I perceived during the match that the referee never had any doubts in the whistles against us. I don’t like to talk about the referee, it shouldn’t be an excuse but we understand when situations are like this”. On the difficulties of the first half: “Bayer has a very strong positional game. We closed the internal spaces that they were looking for but then they created problems for us on the outside lanes and in particular the right one. It was tough but even in the difficulties we defended well. Didn’t Theo help Leao in closing? I think it’s difficult to get Leao to support Theo but even in the first half we suffered more on the right. As I was saying, they were good at creating dangerous situations on the wings given that the center was more closed and it’s true that we have to try to help our full-backs more”.