Sergio Conceicao admits he got ‘angry’ with Milan at half-time before the Supercoppa Italiana comeback against Juventus. ‘I am not here to make friends, I am here to win.’
It was the perfect debut for the new boss, who had only been appointed on Monday after the surprise dismissal of Paulo Fonseca and was suffering from flu symptoms giving him a high fever.
Kenan Yildiz had opened the scoring for Juventus in Riyadh and there seemed to be few real chances for the Rossoneri until Christian Pulisic was brought down by Manuel Locatelli and converted the resulting penalty.
Just four minutes later, Yunus Musah’s cross was deflected in off Federico Gatti to turn the game around completely for the 2-1 victory. After the final whistle, the Rossoneri players gathered in a circle to celebrate.
“Football is passion and excitement, these are wonderful moments,”
“They deserved this win for the second half performance, whereas in the first I saw the same kind of Milan that played a few weeks ago, with the players doubtful in defence, too tired moving the ball around, getting the timing of the pressing wrong.
“At half-time, we changed a few things, looked each other in the eyes and the players had to realise what they needed to do in order to win the game. They needed to do what we had prepared, then it is my responsibility if we lose 2-0 or 3-0, so they were truly courageous in the second half and it was totally different to the first.
“I am happy, but we have done nothing yet, we are in the Final and must prepare to play Inter.”
Rafael Leao was out injured and replaced by Alex Jimenez, but will the Portugal international be available to play in the Supercoppa Italiana Final on Monday against Inter?
“We’ll see, I don’t think he will be training fully with the rest of the players tomorrow, but the day after maybe.”
In a curious twist of fate, Sergio Conceicao’s son Francisco was originally in the starting XI for Juventus, but was forced to pull out with a muscular problem in the warm-up. They did meet up after the final whistle with a warm hug.
“I was happier because we won, he was sad because they lost, but that is life in football!”
