26 January 2017
Massimiliano Allegri was full of praise for his players following Wednesday's Coppa Italia triumph against AC Milan.
Speaking after the 2-1 quarter-final victory, the coach explained that he was especially pleased with the defensive solidity and attitude shown by his team.
"First of all, let's give due credit to our players because they hardly gave the opposition a sniff. AC Milan never know when they're beaten. They keep plugging away no matter what the score is, as they've shown lots of times before and they did again today."
"The most important thing for us is to make sure we always play with the same attitude as tonight.
"We're determined to go all the way and I really do want to congratulate the lads because we've won the cup the last two seasons and now we're in the semi-finals again."
Allegri then analysed the second-half, which saw the Rossoneri claw themselves back into the game through Carlos Bacca's strike before having to see out the game a man light.
"Once [Paulo] Dybala came off we no longer had a numbers advantage. Milan had a couple of situations that could have been dangerous for us and they grew in confidence after their goal but they didn't really have any more chances apart from that run by [Gerard] Deulofeu at the end."
The boss ended with a comment on the side's attacking set-up and whether it could become his formation of choice.
"No two matches are the same and you have to adapt to different situations so of course we might switch things around from time to time. If everyone is willing to put in a shift, the more quality players we have on the field the easier it is to manage possession, which is important. Tonight is a case in point because we didn't defend well when we surrendered possession."
