Sportiello surprise for Milan, stands with Pioli | OneFootball

Marco Sportiello reveals his thoughts when stepping in for Mike Maignan at the last minute against Juventus and stands up against ‘unhelpful’ Stefano Pioli speculation at Milan.

The Bianconeri had the better of the game, forcing several big saves from Sportiello, Danilo denied by the woodwork and Malick Thiaw making a late goal-line clearance on Adrien Rabiot.

It was particularly remarkable considering Maignan was named in the starting XI and only pulled out at the end of the warm-up with an adductor issue.

“Knowing you’re going to play only at the last minute is certainly difficult, but it is my job and has already happened a few times in recent years, so I am prepared,” Sportiello told DAZN.

“I am pleased with the performance, we played against a team that until a few months ago was challenging Inter for the Scudetto. Coming here with so many defenders missing and playing with this mentality was not to be taken for granted.”

Theo Hernandez, Davide Calabria and Fikayo Tomori were all suspended today, with Simon Kjaer, Pierre Kalulu and Luka Jovic also injured.

“The toughest save was on the Dusan Vlahovic free kick, as he often curls over the wall, so I took half a step towards the centre to cover my post.”

It is a third consecutive Serie A stalemate for Juve, who therefore remain five points adrift of second-placed Milan and could still be clawed back by Bologna and Roma.

“A victory here would’ve been a match point, but the important thing was not to lose.”

Sportiello stands up for Pioli

There is intense speculation around who will replace Pioli at Milan next season, with the general assumption that he will be fired, but that does not sit well with Sportiello.

“I worked with him at Fiorentina too, so I was glad to be reunited with him. The rumours going around are certainly not helpful and I don’t think they’re doing anyone any good.

“We are professionals and are concentrated on the work in front of us. Some choices are not up to us, we are behind Pioli and always have been.”

The goalkeeper has an interesting suggestion for why losing the Derby della Madonnina that secured the Scudetto for Inter was particularly galling.

“I think it’s all because it was Inter winning the Scudetto, because if it had been Juventus or Napoli, there wouldn’t have been all this talk. That is the truth.

“We are coming to the end of a very good season, with more or less the same points we had when we won the Scudetto. There is disappointment over the Europa League and Coppa Italia, but I think we did very well in Serie A, especially with all those injuries from October to December.

“They blasted us, we came out of it stronger and only lost recently to Monza and the derby. We have to keep going in football, there is still an important objective up for grabs and that is second place.”