Champions League, Fonseca: "Konaté and Van Dijk's goals changed the match"

Milan, 17 September 2024 – Late night at San Siro where Milan exits amidst boos and protests from the Rossoneri fans after suffering a heavy 3-1 defeat in their Champions League debut against Liverpool. And to think that the evening had begun with very different auspices after the goal scored in the 3rd minute by Pulisic. As the minutes passed, however, Liverpool came out of their shell, dragged by a sumptuous Momo Salah (two crossbars hit by the Egyptian) and turned the match around with goals scored with headers and from set pieces by Konaté and Van Dijk. In the second half, a counterattack was masterfully conducted by Gakpo, Szoboszlai's 3-1 which definitively brought the curtain down on the match and definitively extinguished the hopes of a Milan team left without Maignan (replaced by the young Torriani after having tried for a long time to grit his teeth) and who appeared incapable of reacting.

  “We played against Liverpool who are a great team – he explained Paulo Fonseca appeared clearly disappointed when speaking to Sky Sport  –, starting well both defensively and offensively, but then they had opportunities on the counterattack and scored the two goals that changed the course of the game and our mental balance. In these games you can't get the details wrong, I made that clear to the players. However, I have to be honest and admit that at the moment Liverpool are more of a team than us and they have shown it. We need to work to have more continuity in producing our game: not twenty minutes of quality but sixty, seventy or eighty at least. After we conceded the second goal, we didn't play and it becomes difficult”. On goals conceded from set pieces: “We prepared ourselves to mark their central players man-to-man and on the first goal there was this type of marking on Van Dijk and the other central player”. Among the players who were most in the shade, and who were also served little by his teammates, there is undoubtedly Rafael Leao: “In the little time we had to prepare for the game, we focused on forcing Leao with their right back. We did that a couple of times during the game. We wanted to exploit the right corridor and then serve Rafa in a one-on-one with a long pass.” On a possible switch to 4-3-3 to exploit Loftus-Cheek and Reijnders as mezzali: “I respect every opinion and I think we can play with different tactical structures. We are too permeable defensively in one-on-one situations. Defensively we could have different structures, but if we are not strong individually and collectively, we will always have problems. In midfield I am trying to identify the best characteristics of our midfielders. Loftus-Cheek can be an 8 or a 10 and I think Reijnders is not a player who can play alongside Fofana. We are not playing 4-3-3. I think in the first half we found some situations with Pulisic and Loftus-Cheek but then we missed the last pass. I like this structure with Reijnders, Loftus and Pulisic playing close together. We created the most dangerous situations this way”.