PIOLI: "WE NEED TO STAY IN THE HUNT"

Our final away match of 2022 is around the corner. The Rossoneri are back in action on Tuesday 8 November, at 20:45 CET, as they face Cremonese at the stadio Zini in Cremona. Coach Pioli previewed matchday 14 of Serie A in the pre-match press conference. Here's what he had to say:

CREMONA
"We'll have to play well and with consistency, and not be affected too much by the major incidents in the game. Cremonese will be highly motivated and determined. I scored my only Serie A goal at the stadio Zini, I'm going back this time though in different colours after many years."

THE CURRENT MOMENT
"I expected a fairly even league, the only exception so far is Napoli, who are flying ahead of everyone. We want to get to the break in the best possible way, with points and wins, as it's an important and delicate moment of the season. We can't let Napoli run away, we need to stay as close as possible to them. We're playing lots of games and we're using up a lot of mental and physical energy. Today's training session will be very important in deciding the team for Cremona, we only finished our last game a few hours ago."

ATTACK AND DEFENCE
"If we play every move as if it were the most important one we will improve our levels, with how much we're creating we need to score more. Instead, to concede less we need more concentration and further collaboration between players. More talking needs to be done on the pitch. Spezia's goal came from this: it's just a question of communication. The fine margins make all the difference."

INDIVIDUALS
"We hope Ibrahimović can get back playing soon, his recovery is going well. Krunić is an intelligent, forward-thinking midfielder, who is very open to everything we say. When we have the ball, De Ketelaere needs to do what his instinct tells him and he must link up with his teammates, our trequartisti have lots of freedom in their role. I'm happy for Lazetić's hat-trick, he's a guy who works very hard and is ambitious; he's coming along nicely".

THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE DRAW
"Tottenham are strong and compact as a group, with lots of individual quality. They play in a top league, and are led by a great Head Coach that knows AC Milan well. They will be difficult games, as they should be at the last 16 stage, but they are also very exciting prospects. AC Milan against English sides don't have a particularly strong record, but we'll play with confidence to try and get through to the next round. Perfect or unbeatable teams don't exist, we hope to get to the game in the best possible shape. It will be an opportunity for us to show how far we've come, and we'll need to give an extremely high level of performance. We'll play at home first and we'll have to use that to our advantage."

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