Sergio Conceicao was furious with the refereeing as Milan lost to Bologna, but above all ranted angrily at the media. ‘I won 13 trophies, I did not come here out of nothing.’
The Rossoneri’s campaign is falling apart in the space of a couple of weeks, as they crashed out of the Champions League play-offs and are now down in eighth place in Serie A.
They had been hoping to make the most of this rescheduled Week 9 trip to the Stadio Dall’Ara, originally called off in October 2024 due to flood warnings in the area, and took the lead through Rafael Leao.
There was controversy over the equaliser, as Santiago Castro turned in only after Lorenzo De Silvestri nodded it seemingly onto Giovanni Fabbian’s arm, but Alex Jimenez was caught napping on a throw-in for Dan Ndoye’s late winner.
Conceicao was ill-tempered the moment he arrived for the DAZN post-match interview, complaining that the pundits had ignored the strong first half performance in order to immediately criticise the second.
There was a clear handball on the equaliser. We should’ve done more even with those errors, but negative incidents all seem to go against us and be decisive at the moment,” Conceicao told DAZN.
We did some good things during the game, even if there isn’t much talk about football, more about other things, but that’s fine. We made mistakes, the others made mistakes too, and these small incidents prove decisive in the end.”
When the Week 9 game was originally meant to be played, Paulo Fonseca was on the Milan bench and quite a few of the current players weren’t even in the squad. Despite all the changes, the progress has been the usual rollercoaster of ups and downs.
“This is the case. We were connected to the game, compact, know where to press the opponent, keep the defence tight too and allow our midfielders to find spaces between the lines, which is where Bologna can struggle with their full-backs pushing forward,” agreed Conceicao.
This is the problem, because when we are in the game and do what we prepared, we create chances and reach the final third easily. Every now and then, we get these moments and it all goes.
“I again am sorry to talk about this, because it is not just the referee’s fault that we lost, but these incidents keep happening and at times it feels like we’re walking on hot coals during a match. That is a matter of mentality. There are moments that are very positive for the other team and very negative for us.
“The trouble is there is debate about the criteria, sometimes the referees whistle for anything and sometimes they don’t whistle at all. Referees are human, they can make mistakes too, but this was a very important game.”
The former FC Porto coach lost his temper as time wore on in the interview and hit out at the media reaction to his tenure at Milan, which started on December 30.
“I realise that every day people talk about my situation here and my future, acting as if I was just dropped in here, but I faced five very big Italian clubs, I faced coaches like Sarri and Pioli in charge of teams that were theoretically weaker, but I always qualified against them other than with Inter,” raged Conceicao.
“I see people talk about my situation, so let them just tell me to go if they want, I don’t want one more Euro, so let me reassure them. I did not just come here out of nothing. I won 13 trophies, I had 100 Champions League games. Still people talk about it and say mean things, I have family and neighbours who see what is happening, it’s not fair.
“I am sorry for having let loose a bit there, I prefer to talk about football.”
The situation has changed so much since Conceicao won his first two games in charge to lift the Supercoppa Italiana in Riyadh, dancing in the locker room with a cigar.
