Cannavaro claims Milan played into the hands of Dinamo Zagreb in UCL loss | OneFootball

Fabio Cannavaro has stated that AC Milan did exactly what his Dinamo Zagreb side had prepared for, enabling them to win last night’s Champions League game 2-1.

As a reminder, Cannavaro mentioned in the build-up to the game that he believes that the same issues still exist at Milan as did previously, despite the change in head coach from Paulo Fonseca to Sergio Conceicao.

He might well be right, as the Rossoneri put in another bleak performance in the Croatian capital and coughed up their top eight spot in the process, slipping from sixth to 13th. Now a play-off tie against Juventus or Feyenoord awaits.

Dinamo deserve plaudits for a great performance even though their win – which came thanks to goals from Martin Baturina and Marko Pjaca – was not enough to see them get into the play-off spots.

Cannavaro offered his reflections on the game during a post-match press conference at the Stadion Maksimir, and his comments were relayed by MilanNews.

It was a great victory…

“It was definitely a very difficult match, against a strong team with strong players. We were good at making them do what we wanted, I liked the personality with which they handled the ball.”

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Baturina, Misic and Pjaca did very well…

“I don’t want to talk about just three. Everyone did what they could do. I’m pushing Baturina, because football has two phases.”

What did you tell the team?

“Between the first and second half I got p*ssed off, because we weren’t supposed to relax.”

Did you expect such a poor Milan?

“Tonight my players were good, we had prepared it to try to limit them by making them do what we wanted to do. Then it’s difficult when you don’t find the spaces. I’m not in the Milan dressing room, but the way we prepared it we limited them a lot.

“Our right back is 35 years old and I put him there because against Leao it could have been a good challenge. I see more merits of my team than demerits of Milan. We were good at doing what we wanted to.”