AC Milan coach Stefano Pioli was delighted with their 3-1 win against AS Roma.
Yacine Adli and Olivier Giroud had Milan 2-0 ahead before Leandro Paredes pulled a goal back for Roma from the penalty spot. But Theo Hernandez made things comfortable for Milan by settling the 3-1 win.
Pioli later said: “Clearly, at 2-1 anything can happen. We had wasted chances to get the third goal and were starting to feel tired, but we got there eventually.
“Playing against Roma’s 3-5-2, we make the full-backs and wide men work hard. We tried at times to wait for them to come forward, as otherwise it would leave spaces for El Shaarawy and Lukaku, while we didn’t follow Pellegrini’s run on the penalty incident. These are small things that need to be improved, I thought we were overall balanced tactically.”
Pioli was under pressure after their Coppa Italia quarterfinal defeat to Atalanta in midweek.
But he added, “I am honestly not worried, irritated or easily offended by criticism. We raised the expectations ourselves with our performances over the last four years, so naturally people expect us to go further in the Champions League, to reach the Coppa Italia semi-final.
“The season is still very long and we still have the opportunity to show that we are a quality squad that can challenge for the top.”
