Real-Milan, Fonseca: "Important victory, we played without fear"

Madrid (Spain), 6 November 2024 – The Milan accomplishes a real feat and, after 15 years, returns to conquer the Santiago Bernabeu by beating Real Madrid with a peremptory 3-1. In this masterpiece of the Rossoneri, who for almost 80 minutes gave a tough lesson in football to Real, there is also a lot of credit to Mister Fonseca. The choices of the Portuguese, who relaunched Leao from the 1st minute, being repaid by the 1999 class with an assist and a performance of great depth, and deployed Musah on the right all over the pitch to widen the defensive line to five and contain Vinicius and Mbappé, have in fact paid excellent dividends. Milan have in fact taken control of the game taking the lead in the 10th minute with Thiaw's header and promptly reacting to Vinicius' temporary equaliser from the penalty spot in the 23rd minute, regaining the lead in the 39th minute with Morata. In the second half, then, when Real Madrid took the lead, the Rossoneri responded with character, personality and balance, arriving at the trio with Reijnders, hitting a post with Morata, coming close to making it four with Loftus-Cheek and finally resisting the last, desperate assaults of Real Madrid, whose 3-2 goal by Rudiger was disallowed due to Rodrygo's offside.

A success that fixes the Champions League standings and boosts the morale and ambitions of the men mister Fonseca, who appeared radiant at the end of the match to the microphones of Sky Sport: “I think we won because the players came here without fear of anything and trying to play our game. We prepared this match to keep the ball. In the first half we did really important things and in the second half we suffered more but we did it together and I think we totally deserved this victory, not only for the success but because we played with great quality”. The Rossoneri performance was all-round. Attentive defense and a sharp offensive phase: “I don’t agree when people talk about defensive Italian football. I think we can be a more dominant team in matches even in Europe. These are the characteristics of the team. Today we showed that Italian teams don’t just defend. We did great things in positioning. The team had the patience to keep the ball and move it around to find the right moment to attack. We have to continue to grow because we have a lot of room for growth”.

In the end, after the changes, the decline: “Abraham is a player with different characteristics to Morata who knows how to act as a glue. He plays further forward, works well defensively, helps the team and Alvaro couldn’t take it anymore. In the final stages, Real grew and we lost a bit of the ability to control the game with ball possession, but the players continued to protect the result”. A great reaction after the chiaroscuro match against Monza: “In these matches we have more space. We played as a team that wants to control the game. Outside of Italy they don’t understand how complicated it is to play a match in Serie A. Monza played man against man and Cagliari, who we will face in a few days, do the same. It is more complicated to play in Italy”.