Coppa Italia, Conceiçao: "I'm satisfied but we still need to improve"

Milan, 5 February 2025 – The former's brace and the new arrivals' scratch. Milan beat Roma 3-1 and earn a pass to the Coppa Italia semi-finals where they will face the winner of the quarter-final between Inter and Lazio. A success achieved with a convincing performance by the Rossoneri team, who started with full speed ahead and took the lead after a quarter of an hour with the Abraham's header from a Theo Hernandez pass from deep, good at diving on Svilar's parry on a shot from Reijnders and crossing for his teammate's head. The same axis that in the 42nd minute created a 2-0 on the developments of an action born from a recovery in midfield that dampened the enthusiasm of a Roma that in the central phase of the first half had tried to react hitting the crossbar with Pisilli's header. The same upright hit at the dawn of the second half by Walker, who gave a further jolt to Milan, capable in turn of replying to the temporary 2-1 scored by the new entrant Dovbyk. A goal that did not dent the convictions of a Milan that in turn He held his nerve and in the 72nd minute he struck, sealing the final 3-1 with Joao Felix's "chip", who scored on a perfect pass from another debutant Gimenez 14' after their first appearance on the pitch in red and black. A solid and quality performance that left the Rossoneri coach Sergio Conceiçao satisfied at the end of the match, interviewed by Canale 5: “I recently spoke about the basics, referring to essential things in football and in life. Passion, ambition and the desire to be stronger day after day. I'm satisfied, but it's not that on other occasions the lads haven't run. We try to pass on to the team what we want to see on the pitch. We had a training session yesterday in preparation for this match. All the phases and details need to be trained and I don't have this opportunity now because we play every three days. The players are intelligent, they accept what we want and honestly today I'm happy. The second goal also came from a recovery that we studied. Gimenez and Felix only had one training session but they understood things straight away because they are intelligent. Joao's goal? It was nice but it didn't give us anything concrete: we won, we're in the semi-final, but there are three games left to win the cup. We need to start preparing for the match against Empoli straight away, which will be difficult even if they're coming off a series of negative results. I really liked the team. In the league we know that all the games are difficult and we hope to continue to have this consistency and find that evolution of the individuals that I want and that is also reflected in the collective. Leao? He can do much more because he has incredible qualities. He must think that he is important with the ball at his feet and without. He must make himself available to the team at all times. Getting out of his comfort zone is not easy, but for us his work is essential. He can become a player of another level if he understands what we work on every day”. However, there is still some regret for Roma and for mister Claudio Ranieri who, however, immediately gave credit to his opponents: “First of all, we have to compliment Milan, who have tremendous quality. They all move from midfield forward. They are really good. It is the awareness of playing against a great team. We tried everything. In the second half of the first half, we came out, we created goal opportunities, we hit the crossbar. It was the moment to score and instead we conceded. It is normal, because when you push hard the mechanisms fail. We were determined not to try not to take counterattacks but against these teams it is difficult to do so. There may be regrets about that offside goal that could have reopened the game, but I cannot reproach my lads for anything. When you fight until the end, for me, you have to accept everything. Now I am curious to see how the team will react on a difficult pitch like that of Venezia”.