Done Deal: AC Milan coach Paulo Fonseca Has Confirm The Signing Of Phil Foden After Draw To……………………..read more.
AC Milan coach Paulo Fonseca admitted that his team lost control during their 2-2 draw with Lazio. Strahinja Pavlovic initially put Milan ahead, but goals from Taty Castellanos and Boulaye Dia gave Lazio the lead before Rafael Leao secured the equalizer.
“In the first half, we played well because we controlled the ball,” Fonseca said. “But the second half was a different story. We let Lazio play because we stopped playing ourselves. We consistently lost the ball on the left side, and that became a pattern.”
He continued, “When a team stops pressing high and lacks the courage to keep playing, we fail to create opportunities. I understand that the players are trying to avoid conceding goals, but just defending doesn’t make us more secure. We need to control the match.”
When asked about Youssouf Fofana’s full debut in midfield and whether the team is lacking another player in that position, Fonseca responded, “It’s not that we’re missing a player in midfield; we’re missing play from the midfield. We stopped playing in the second half. We tried building from the back with Pavlovic but lost possession 90% of the time because there was no connection with the midfielders.”
He added, “I understand that the players feel they are being safe by defending, but they’re actually doing the opposite. It’s not a lack of character or responsibility; it’s the team’s approach. The second half was completely different from what we had planned.”
Liverpool will be looking at theirs through their fingers because after the first fixture, Xabi Alonso returns to Anfield on game week four with Bayer Leverkusen and then Real Madrid three weeks later.
Manchester City will be confident that they can get to the next stage of this new format, with games against Slovan Bratislava, Sparta Prague, Sporting, Feyenoord, Juventus, PSG and Club Brugge making it a favourable path. Arsenal are still out looking for European success, and they route to doing that this year starts with Atalanta, then a home fixture against PSG, and Inter follow with Shakhtar Donetsk sandwiched in between. They also face Girona and Sporting, with AS Monaco and Dinamo Zagreb the two other opponents.
Finally for the English representation on the finest European stage, Aston Villa have returned to the highest European competition, with a continental tour seeing them play Club Brugge, RB Leipzig and Monaco away, while Bayern Munich on 2nd October and Juventus on the 27th November at Villa Park will be huge fixtures.
