Milan defeated Torino 2-1 away in the first round of Serie A. Torino coach Ignazio Abate, who had a long playing career at Milan, was interviewed by Sky Sport Italia after the match.

Ignazio Abate, making your Serie A debut as a head coach, I'd like to ask you straight away: what are your overall feelings about this match? Because for the first 65 minutes, you limited Milan very well and resisted their attacks. In fact, you gave them almost no clear scoring opportunities. You also had some chances to threaten Milan and create dangerous situations in front of their goal. I think the ultimate difference that decided the result was the individual quality of the players and tactical execution, wouldn't you say? Especially in those crucial moments that determined the match, you also had two or three opportunities. In those situations, perhaps you could have managed things more effectively. The first thing that comes to mind is Petersen's cross, which was a bit hesitant and delayed, while Casadei at the far post was actually well-positioned to attack the ball. So overall, individual quality and player ability seem to have been the decisive factors in this match—would you agree?

Yes, I completely agree with you. Individual quality certainly played a decisive role, although... and to be frank and honest, our first-half performance didn't really satisfy me; it was rather ordinary. Milan didn't create any truly significant or dangerous threats to our goal in the first half, but we were indeed far too passive on the pitch.

In terms of possession and defending, we need to show greater courage in controlling the ball, maintaining possession, pushing our entire formation higher up the field, and daring to play our own style of football. Especially against a strong team like Milan—if you don't actively try to control and organize possession, you'll face serious difficulties afterward, and it will be hard to turn things around.

However, the second half was completely different; we showed much more boldness and courage on the pitch. But ironically, we conceded two goals in the second half, especially the second. Nevertheless, I will always remember and praise the team's resilient response and that excellent, well-executed second half. We created three excellent scoring opportunities in the second half. It's really a shame we couldn't score earlier to bring suspense back into the match.

Indeed, you made excellent tactical adjustments and showed resilience when you were behind. You brought on very young and promising new talents like Caccamo and Mascardi, who made his professional debut, as well as Fitzgerald-Tinley, who was excellent and comfortable in central midfield. N'Guessan's performance after coming on as a substitute was also very positive, and Adams scored a goal. There's currently discussion about N'Guessan and Adams as potential transfer issues for the club. You see, such a team certainly deserves to be strengthened further in the transfer market. Perhaps—or almost certainly—everyone is eagerly awaiting the club to recruit important new signings in the coming period to inject fresh blood into the squad...

There's absolutely no doubt that this will be a crucial week for everyone. After that, for me, it's about using all the available players I have and conducting daily training and tactical preparation. We're a very young and inexperienced group at the moment, so we must remain extremely humble and grounded in the coming days and not get ahead of ourselves. And I firmly believe our team still has enormous room for improvement and growth.

Ignazio, hello. First, I want to offer you my sincere greetings and congratulations, and wish you good luck on your new Serie A journey, as you've returned to the Serie A scene. And your coaching debut comes precisely against your former club, Milan. Your match analysis seems entirely correct and relevant to me, but I'd like to raise a point with you: weren't you perhaps a bit too respectful and intimidated by Milan on the pitch? I'm mainly referring to your starting lineup and tactical choices, wouldn't you say? Perhaps we, sitting here in the studio discussing after the match, might think you should have shown more courage and brought on a faster striker? Because you may have compromised your formation by choosing players with certain specialized skills, originally thinking Milan could cause great damage in those specific tactical areas. You wanted to use specific players to play more aggressively on the counter-attack or to create greater defensive pressure on Milan through tactical containment, as you successfully managed in the last 15-20 minutes of the match. How did you approach and execute this?

First, in terms of tactical design, I actually hoped we could have more possession and better control the pace of the game. We planned for Fitzgerald-Tinley to drop deep and receive the ball in open spaces, because once Milan finds defined marking targets on the pitch, their overall pressing and intensity become very aggressive. When our defensive midfielder could successfully drop to receive the ball, we originally intended to push Casadei up to form a central partnership with Ginetty. This would slow down and slightly ease Milan's midfield pressing and intensity.

However, unfortunately, we never achieved truly fluid and precise positional build-up play throughout the first half, nor did we create threatening local tactics or dangerous attacks. We were completely suppressed, forced to passively seek counter-attacking opportunities, which shows we indeed lacked the courage to fully commit in the first half. In my opinion, I completely agree with your observation that we were perhaps a bit too respectful, even excessively intimidated, by them in the first half.

However, what pleased and satisfied me most in the second half was the proactive attacking courage we displayed. Of course, there's no doubt that the higher you push your defensive line and the higher your team's center of gravity on the pitch, the more fatal the impact and punishment high-level teams like Milan can inflict on you through counter-attacks, and the defensive space behind you will inevitably be completely exposed. But I must say, honestly, that I still greatly appreciate and strongly advocate for the courage we showed in pushing forward and taking the initiative in attack and ball control.

Traduit par IA.

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