COACH D’AVERSA ON THE EVE OF PARMA VS. MILAN: “WE’RE REDISCOVERING OUR BATTLING SPIRIT, I EXPECT THE LADS TO PUT IN A DETERMINED PERFORMANCE”

Parma, 19 April 2019 – Coach Roberto D’Aversa spoke to the press on the eve of Parma vs. Milan to speak about tomorrow’s 12:30 CEST kick-off. This is what he had to say:

“Gervinho trained all week with the team, Bruno Alves also worked with the group and will therefore be part of the matchday squad. I’ll make my final selections tomorrow. How we interpret the match against an opponent looking for Champions League qualification will be important, but our motivation to secure our objective of avoiding relegation needs to prevail. When you play these matches in front of a large crowd, giving 100% might not be enough. I hope that the lads play to the absolute limit.

“What do I expect from Milan? They lined up using a 4-3-3 formation against Lazio before switching to a 3-4-2-1, with this depending on what was going on in the match. I believe they’ll come here and use the former formation. We need to think about the match we played against them earlier on in the season, when we played really well: we had other chances apart from the one which gave us the lead. We come into the game on the back of two positive results. We’re rediscovering the battling spirit of a team that wants to save itself. I want the players to show determination and be proactive in tomorrow’s match: nothing can be taken for granted in football.

“We take it one game at a time without making any calculations. We need to give our all out on the pitch tomorrow and not only think about picking up a point. We’ve achieved unthinkable results more than once by going out there and giving our all. If we look back at the match we played against Milan earlier on in the season, it’s frustrating that we didn’t get any points after the performance we put in. Let’s not comment on referees: there are only a few games remaining and let’s hope that no further mistakes are made. Tomorrow, we’ll be up against a stronger side than us on paper. However, if we approach the game in a certain manner nothing is impossible, even if we’ve got some injuries and they are fighting for a spot in next season’s Champions League.

“The sold-out crowd at the Tardini? It’ll be important that the crowd supports us, as they have always done. Those cheering on from the Curva have always given us their backing, while it’s important that the whole crowd push us on too. We need to give the crowd something to shout about, their support will be vital in terms of creating a tight-knit environment. It’s not a coincidence that we did well against Torino, for example, with a reshuffled line-up, nor that we did well when we beat Genoa at home.

“Milan defend in a 4-5-1 formation and are good at hitting teams on the break with players like Calhanoglu and Suso. They don’t give you a lot down the middle, we need to play our game and also think about their strengths and weaknesses. We also need to improve how we manage the ball and not just become fixated on our attacking players. These players are good at helping us out when we’re defending, but when it comes to attacking everyone needs to do their bit and not just them so our ball management can improve.”