Fonseca defends ‘magnificent’ Morata and disagrees with Fofana’s assessment of Monza win | OneFootball

Paulo Fonseca has admitted that he was happy with how Rafael Leao did off the bench against Monza, and praised Alvaro Morata for what he provided.

Milan got a much needed three points and a clean sheet against their neighbours from up the road, however it was another performance that was not exactly overflowing with positives.

It was far from a classic game in truth between two sides low on confidence, but the only goal of the game came late in the first half as Tijjani Reijnders pounced on a blocked Alvaro Morata header to put the Rossoneri 1-0 up.

The home side had their chances to make it a tough night for Milan with Daniel Maldini in particular missing a couple of opportunities, yet Alessandro Nesta’s side remain in a relegation battle after another tough result.

Fonseca spoke to Sky after the game to give his thoughts after what was a rather tough win to judge, with his comments relayed by MilanNews.

Fofana said that today Milan didn’t play well but they won. Today, is the result more important than anything else?

“Yes, it was very important to win, but I don’t really agree with Fofana, we had important moments during the match. I think we deserved to score more goals for what we did in the second half.”

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Now Real Madrid are next…

“I’m always excited for every game. I don’t think the game against Real is more important than today’s, they’re all important. We needed to win, it’s always difficult to play here: last year Milan lost here, today we played a good game.”

Did Leao come on and do well?

“Yes, he came on and did well. That’s the most important thing. It’s important to have this reaction from Rafa, that’s what I want.”

Is he ready for Madrid?

“Yes, I think he’s ready.”

Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images

At the end of the year, who will be the player with the most goals? Morata works hard all over the pitch but doesn’t score…

“I really like that you talk about Morata, I also want to talk about Morata. He had opportunities, if he hadn’t had them I would be worried. But what Morata does for the team, how he played, for me was magnificent.

“Without a doubt he was the man of the match. He had opportunities to score and he didn’t score, but he will come.”

Aren’t you worried about the chances given to other teams?

“In the first half we were not very aggressive in the duels, but in the second half I don’t remember any opportunities from Monza. They had 2-3 chances to score with merit, in the interval we talked about things to correct defensively and then we controlled.”