Pellegrini full of faith in Málaga
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
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Manuel Pellegrini praised the rounded nature of Málaga CF's 1-0 victory against AC Milan, with Massimiliano Allegri quick to concede his Rossoneri side are short of confidence.
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Manuel Pellegrini, Málaga coach
Tonight's game was very important for us, against a team like Milan. I thought my team did well, we were always looking to get into our opponents' area. At the other end our defending was also good. The scoreline doesn't really reflect the game. I have full faith and confidence in all of my players. We will be looking to secure qualification next but for now we must focus on the Liga again.
There was an additional weight attached to the game because of everything Milan represent. The fact that we have yet to concede means we are defending well. We are always looking forward, always looking to attack, which is the most important thing.
There are characteristics in this Málaga side that are similar to [my old club] Villarreal [when they reached the semi-finals in 2005/06]. We have to now forget the UEFA Champions League, with our nine points in the bag, and start to focus on our match against Espanyol in the Liga.
Massimiliano Allegri, Milan coach
Málaga were pressing us but without creating serious chances when they scored. We missed too many final passes in attack as we had space to be dangerous but didn't use it. At the moment we have to keep it as simple as possible and just try to pick up some good results in order to earn some confidence.
We managed to limit Málaga to shots from long distance in the first half, while we had some good chances ourselves. Unfortunately we missed shots or final passes when we could have scored. In the second half we gave possession away too easily when they pressed us. I still think we did some good things tonight but we obviously have to improve. For the first time we played with a three-man defence, but I think we did quite well and we will use this system again in the future.
I feel the trust of my players and in the league we will certainly improve our situation. In the UEFA Champions League we are still in a good position to qualify. Certainly we can say we have not been lucky in this recent period as we have missed good chances and we are punished for every mistake we make.
