Nicola admits ‘great respect’ for Milan as San Siro game plan worked: “We did well”

At San Siro, AC Milan were beaten well by a newly promoted Cremonese side. A game where much was proven about the Rossoneri’s stance. 

After a summer of change, there needed to be a performance in Serie A to prove its worth. In pre-season, Milan were solid, as they were in the Coppa Italia, also. However, they crumbled in their first league game.

The patterns from the summer disappeared, and the work done seemingly had stopped. It was a 2024/25 performance, rather than one after a summer of investment and change. Of course, it does not happen overnight, but more was needed.

Nicola reviews Milan win

Being too critical does not help greatly, after all, it was only the first game of the season. However, there needs to be a stark improvement next weekend. Speaking after full-time, Cremonese’s new head coach, Davide Nicola, spoke to DAZN, and Calciomercato.com have relayed his words.

“Coming to San Siro and managing to take points away is never easy. While we had great respect for our opponents, we were aiming to put in our performance. Having team spirit, a clear organisation, seeing dynamic marking executed well, and working as a team was the match we needed and wanted to play.

Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images

“We know it’s a long road, but taking points like this from a pitch like this gives you even more energy. I have great respect for Milan’s quality. We knew we had to play a game where we couldn’t push ourselves too hard defensively: at times, that happened, thanks to Milan.

“However, we did well to keep our distance. We’ll keep going like this, working hard, knowing we shouldn’t say too many useless things. We have to build our championship, and getting points like this is nice. I’m happy for our fans; when you can give them a win like that, everything makes more sense.”