GAME OF TWO HALVES
3/18/2007 6:48:00 PM
Carlo Ancelotti admitted that Milan made heavy weather of overcoming Atalanta and should have taken their goalscoring opportunities but the coach was satisfied with Massimo Ambrosini´s contribution
Carlo Ancelotti and Adriano Galliani had this to say to Milan Channel after Milan´s win over Atalanta:
CARLO ANCELOTTI
It was a good first half even though we struggled to score. There was less sharpeness in the second half. We will have the injured players back after the break and the brightness as well. It was a game of two halves, paradoxically when the game became more simple we made it more complicated and we fell away.
We had four midfield then went to three and after that back to four. The positive thing was that the team managed to change to the various situations. There was some tiredness out there but that is to be expected after the heavy cycle of games where we have had to give a lot. We can´t slip up and always make life difficult for ourselves. We had a lot of chances to score and maybe we scored when things were more complicated. Ambrosini did well.
ADRIANO GALLIANI
The hope is that Paolo Maldini will play the greatest number of games before the end of the championship, then have a cartilage operation and then get back on the pitch again in September 2007. The positive thing today were the three points and we closed another two points on Palermo and two away from Fiorentina. We did well in the first half, Ambrosini changed the course of the game just has he did at Siena, he´s a match-winner and we have felt that when he has been missing.
We suffered after the break and as usual I didn´t watch the last few minutes. It went well and we picked up three points although it would have been better to have done it with less suffering. A lot of people were hoping for Ricardo Oliveira to score, he came close as did Ronaldo and Kakà. None of the front three let us down.
I am disappointed Gourcuff didn´t play today, he is a great talent and deserves to play. He is precious and it´s important he can make his contribution. He´s only 20 but I believe that he will lend a hand because he can also play all over the pitch.
(source : acmilan.com)