Leao ejected, Stefano Pioli is in pieces

Leao ejected, Stefano Pioli is in pieces

In Milan’s win against Sampdoria, there was Rafael Leao’s expulsion for double caution. The Portuguese will miss the big match against Napoli, but Spalletti will also have to deal with a top, Osimhen, out due to injury.

“Both teams can miss a lot, maybe more us because Rebic’s absence is also likely. These things happen, now we recover our energies after an intense week, we have another important Champions game for the group standings and then we will look for solutions for Napoli. We will maintain our qualities and characteristics, clearly Leao will be a heavy absence for us,” Pioli told Sky Sport.

“These are hard-fought, hard-fought victories, we played a very good first half, then we suffered numerical inferiority. It is an important victory against a team that had drawn at home against Juventus and Lazio. We had to make a little less mistakes technically, but I think we improved situations and we will carry them forward.”

A few days ago Tonali renewed his contract with the Diavolo: “Tonali is an important player, one of those guys who never stopped believing in his chances. He has become a complete midfielder with great quality, but he knows he can do even better. I am happy, the renewal is well deserved. He puts everything on the field and these attitudes make the difference.”

In closing, a line on refereeing: “Players adapt to the yardstick of refereeing, we went to play Salzburg and half-fouls were never whistled. I think in the derby we played 47 minutes of excessive soccer, that’s very few out of 90 minutes of the game. They are the ones who have to determine our attitudes, the players clearly get nervous if you whistle a lot. Definitely there is a bit of a difference compared to Europe.”