AC Milan coach Stefano Pioli has confirmed that the Stade Rennes match is going to come too soon for Pierre Kalulu and Fikayo Tomori but they might be able to feature against Atalanta on Sunday evening.
Speaking to Milan TV (as seen below) ahead of the Europa League clash in France on Thursday night, the Italkian coach discussed the fitness of his two defenders.
“It’s clear that Kalulu and Tomori haven’t trained with us for a long time, so getting them back will be very important. They won’t be available for tomorrow night, if anything we’ll see for Sunday. It’s clear that we were happy to have some important players back in the group,” Pioli said.
Milan won the first leg of this knockout round play-off tie 3-0, meaning they are in a great position to qualify. Pioli says the tie is not over yet, though.
“We approach it with great concentration, great desire to pass this round. It is clear that we took a good lead in the first game but it is equally true that we cannot consider it over. We are playing against a team that, despite changing five or six players, won in the league match. We know each other well, both us and them. That can be an advantage, but we can also expect different things because they will try to come back. We are just focused on what we have to do to get through the round,” he said.
He was also asked what Rennes’ best weapons are to hurt Milan.
“Their verticality, their speed for sure and also their positions, in the first leg they tried to put us in trouble with different positions than we thought. We can also expect something different tomorrow night. It’s a fast team, it’s a quality team that absolutely will not raise the white flag easily. We will have to be good at reading the game with great attention, with great conviction, managing well and trying to hit the opponents.”
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