AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri believes his side can push for second place after they took home a 2-0 victory against Genoa on Friday.
The Rossoneri now sit two points behind Napoli who have a game in hand, but Allegri knows they must hope in a slip by the Partenopei if they want to overtake them.
“I thought that the match was on the right path after the 2-0 because we weren’t suffering much,” Allegri told Sky Sport.
“I thought we could have closed the match without using too much energy but the sending off complicated things and made us struggle at the end. At this stage of the season we can’t afford such behaviour seeing as second place and the quarter-finals of the Champions League are on the line.”
“Tuesday we will go to Barcelona to play against the best team in the world and we will need our energy. Genoa did very well and we struggled to close down Toszer who found life easy in the middle.”
“We had very few difficulties in the first half and were defending in an orderly fashion, while they were more dangerous in the second half. The important thing was to win to give us a boost in the standings and to get back to winning on the road.”
“We must defend the third spot and maybe look even higher up if Napoli concede to us, even if it will not be easy.”
“Balotelli didn’t have 80 minutes in his legs but he fought and helped us. He must improve his conditioning, but he will do that with work on the field in the coming weeks.”
“Today he came on because Pazzini was injured or else he would have played one half. He [Pazzini] and Mexes will be evaluated in the coming days as I took them off for precautionary reasons.”
“Niang, given his limited experience and young age, must play on the wing in order to create space for the team. He is more of a secondary striker, but at the moment he is in too much of a hurry to shoot. Today he did well and helped us out a lot in defence.”
“Flamini? He is playing very well right now. His problem was that his knee injury hampered his condition for at least a year, but he is recovered now and has returned to being the player that we knew in his first season.”
Follow Adriano Boin on Twitter: @Boin44
