Conceicao admits he got ‘angry’ during Juventus win: “I’m not here to make friends but to win” | OneFootball

Sergio Conceicao made a winning start to life as AC Milan head coach, and after the win over Juventus he gave quite an emotive post-match interview.

Milan began the Conceicao era in the best way, coming from behind against Juve to seal a spot in the Supercoppa Italiana final. Kenan Yildiz got the opener in the first half, and after 60 minutes the Rossoneri had not even mustered a shot on target.

However, the game turned on its head inside five second-half minutes. Christian Pulisic was brought down in the box by Manuel Locatelli and converted the penalty to equalise, then substitute Yunus Musah had a cross diverted into the Juve net by Federico Gatti.

The result means that Milan will face their city rivals Inter in the final on Monday night at the same stadium, hoping to get revenge for the 3-0 defeat a couple of years ago.

Conceiçao spoke to Mediaset at the end of the victory to give his thoughts, while still visibly battling a fever. His comments were relayed by MilanNews, and we have translated below.

You decided to get the team in a huddle at full-time…

“You need passion in life. Football is passion, emotion. These are beautiful moments. They deserved it for the second half they played, they deserved to be in the final.

“In the first half I saw a Milan like a few weeks ago, with many doubts in the players. Defensively, in pressing, with the ball, slow in movement. We changed at half-time, we talked, we looked each other in the eyes.

“They had to understand what to do to win this match. They had to do what we had prepared, then if we lost 2-3 to 0 it was my fault. But we haven’t won anything yet. Now we have to rest, we will have one less day of rest and this can be important.”

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Could Leao recover?

“Let’s see. Today he did a workout that was close to what is needed from a physical point of view to get closer to working with the team. I don’t think he will be there tomorrow, let’s see the day after tomorrow.”

Have you seen your son?

“He was calm, he was happy for me but also sad. It’s part of life.”

Is there a possibility, in your mind, of playing with two strikers?

“Yes. Of course, yes. We did it in the second half. Alvaro often comes to support, our wingers, Jimenez and Pulisic, didn’t do what I wanted in terms of getting in behind and we were almost non-existent in terms of attack.

“I played with a 4-4-2 for years, but we had prepared something different that we didn’t do in the first half. However, yes, in the future there will be the possibility of playing with two references up front.”

Photo by Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images

Have your struck a chord with the players the last few days?

“I can tell you that after the first 45 minutes in the locker room I didn’t give kisses to the players. I got a little angry, they weren’t doing what we prepared and that makes me a little angry.

“I’m living this moment with a humble group, a good group. Sometimes it lacks a little of that positive ruthlessness to get to that little something extra, but with time we’ll do it. The players need a nice word and also a few blows.

“I’m not a very nice person, I don’t like giving hugs. I get angry more often than the opposite. The important thing for them is to work well and have a lot of positive energy.

“It’s a quality group, I’m very happy with the group because they accepted the message and a coach who doesn’t smile a lot. And that makes me happy, because I’m not here to make friends but to win. That’s the important thing.”

What did you say to the team at half-time?

“I’m sorry, what I said in the locker room stays there (smiles).”