Tare shrugs off Milan Scudetto talk, reassuring news on Leao
Milan director Igli Tare shrugs off Scudetto talk ahead of tonight’s rescheduled clash with Como and assures Rafael Leao ‘is doing much better physically.’
It kicks off at San Siro at 19.45 GMT (20.45 CET).
This Week 24 fixture was meant to be on February 8, but the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza needed to prepare for the opening ceremony of the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympic Games.
For many months, the plan was to move the entire match over to Perth, Australia, until negotiations with the local authorities broke down.
Instead, it was just shuffled along by 10 days once San Siro was back in action.
Tare not interested in Milan title talk
DAZN Italia reporters on the touchline asked Tare before kick-off if this match would be potentially decisive to keep clinging to the Scudetto dream.
“We are not clinging to anything, as there are 14 more rounds to go including this one. We must try to give a sense of consistency to the work we’ve done so far. It won’t be easy, but a win tonight would be very important for the table,” replied the Milan director.
“It is absolutely not crucial for the Scudetto, there is such a long way to go, but we are coming off back-to-back wins and we want to keep building that momentum.”
Leao returns to the starting XI with Christopher Nkunku, though Adrien Rabiot is suspended, with Christian Pulisic and Ruben Loftus-Cheek only fit for the bench.
“The positive thing about Leao is that in the last 10 days he is doing much better physically. The issue remains, but he’s certainly stronger now, you can see it in training. We never doubted his qualities.”
Tare was also asked about the controversy over Alessandro Bastoni’s simulation to get Pierre Kalulu sent off in Inter 3-2 Juventus last week, but the former Lazio striker was not interested in getting drawn into the debate.
“These are things that happened in the past and will happen again in future. It is not good for football, we must all take a step back and try to let the referees do their work in the best possible way.
“There’s no point discussing this now, we want to look at the next 90 minutes with positivity.”