AC Milan wants to “change the prospects” of their gloomy campaign in the semi -final of Coppa Italia against Arch Rivals Inter Milan after their hope for European qualification through the Serie A still suffering a setback.
Milan was beaten 2-1 on Sunday by the Serie A Title Challengers Napoli, a terrible opening 20 minutes and saw she fall back 2-0 for goals from Matteo Politano and Romelu Lukaku.
The Rossoneri improved in the second half, but could not save a point because Santiago Gimenez missed a 69th minute of penalty before Luka Jovic pulled it late.
It means that Milan lags five points behind the sixth placed Roma, who takes sixth place for what would be a place in the conference competition of next season, with eight games to play.
A late increase to erase that shortage looks very unlikely and with the victory in the Coppa Italia that conquers a place in the Europa League, coach Sergio Conukicao is aimed at the first stage of a huge two -legged semi -final with Inter.
“It is very frustrating because we have not earned this defeat,” said Conceicao. “We want to change the prospects and on Wednesday we have the chance to do this.”
Ft. pic.twitter.com/uje9sucqri
– AC Milan (@acmilan) March 30, 2025
In conversation with Dazn after the defeat against Napoli, Concualo no longer apologized, but pointed to the accident of illness that two players from his team removed.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek was taken to the hospital with Appendicitis, while Malick Thiaw was also unwell.
“Since I have been here, more or less three months, I have never found apologies for the lack of time to work,” he said.
“Today everything went wrong. I woke up at 7:30 am, Loftus-Cheek was sick and went to the hospital for an operation. Then they told me that Thiaw could not play because he vomited, he had a belly bug.
“Shortly thereafter they told me that [Rafael] Leao experienced discomfort in his thigh. On the other hand, they are not apologies, we could have done a lot more. The first ball they brought forward, they scored. We didn’t play the first 20 minutes as we had prepared.
“These things happen, I don’t want to cling to bad luck because we could have done more, but today everything really happened. In the second half the team responded very well, it was necessary. In the second half we created so many opportunities, the right result would have been a draw in my opinion.”
Leao came from the bank to appear and was involved in the structure for the goal of Jovic, but that came too little, too late after Gimenez saw a tame penalty saved by Alex Meret.
Asked who should have taken the punishment, Conceicao said: “We have three main characters. [Christian] Pulisic wanted to give his teammate confidence who did not score for a few weeks.
“We know what things are. It is not up to me to say anything to the players, it is the three of those who decide on the basis of how they feel.
“But this is a good sign, it is the sign of a united dressing room. There is the consciousness that we had to do more in the first 25 minutes, there is great frustration because we have not earned this defeat.”
Milan is the designated home team for the first stage of their semi-final, the winner of which is confronted with low Empoli or Champions League-Chasing Bologna in the final in the Stadio Olimpico on 14 May.
