AC Milan earned a hard-fought 1-0 win away to Monza in Serie A, with Tijjani Reijnders scoring the only goal. After the match, Milan coach Paulo Fonseca addressed several key points about the performance and his decisions.
On the importance of the win, Fonseca said: “It was more important to win, but I don’t agree that we didn’t play well. We had good moments in the match, but winning was the most crucial thing. We deserved to score more goals based on what we did in the second half.”
Regarding the upcoming Champions League clash with Real Madrid, the coach insisted: “I’m always motivated for all matches. I don’t think the Real Madrid game is more important than today’s. For me, they’re all important. We needed to win today like we did. It’s always difficult to play here; Milan lost here last year. Today we won and we won very well.”
Fonseca also addressed the decision to start Rafael Leao on the bench for the third straight match: “He came on well. That’s the most important thing. It’s important to have this reaction from Rafa when he comes in; that’s what I want.” When pressed on whether Leao’s status should guarantee him a starting spot, Fonseca was firm: “No, for me Leao is like Loftus-Cheek and Musah. Status doesn’t go on the field.”
The coach had high praise for striker Alvaro Morata despite his lack of goals: “I really like that we’re talking about Morata; I want to talk about him. He had two opportunities; if he hadn’t had them, I would have been worried. I don’t like to talk about individuals, but what Morata does for the team, how he played – for me it was magnificent. Today without a doubt he was the man of the match in every moment.”
On the team’s defensive performance, Fonseca noted: “Mainly in the first half, we lacked aggression at times. But in the second half, I don’t remember Monza having chances. They had two or three chances on merit; then at halftime we corrected what we needed to defensively and it was a completely controlled match.”
Looking ahead to the Real Madrid clash, Fonseca remained coy about his lineup plans: “The formation is already in my head before this match.” When asked if Leao would start, he simply replied: “Maybe; it’s a possibility.”
Fonseca concluded by defending the team’s overall performance: “I don’t agree it was a step back in our growth. Monza is a quality team. I saw many positive things in the offensive phase, like the build-up play and other interesting situations. I see a team that plays well man-to-man and offensively did well. Defensively we had some moments of difficulty.”
