Gimenez and Pulisic: ‘Right Milan spirit, Serie A always difficult’ | OneFootball

Christian Pulisic saw the right ‘spirit’ from Milan in their hard-fought 2-0 victory away to Empoli, while Santiago Gimenez is already learning ‘games are always difficult in Serie A.’

The Rossoneri struggled in the first half and only really started to push hard when Sergio Conceicao made a triple substitution at half-time, bringing on Pulisic, Rafael Leao and Santi Gimenez, the latter making his Serie A debut.

They all proved decisive after both teams went down to 10 men, with Fikayo Tomori’s controversial second yellow card and Luca Marianucci shown red for a reaction foul on Gimenez.

Leao opened the scoring before Mexico international Gimenez marked his first goal in the Milan jersey with a left-foot curler, but both of them were assisted by Serie A Man of the Match Pulisic.

“The three points are the most important thing. We had difficulty in the first half, but did well after the two red cards,” Pulisic told DAZN.

There can be no complaints about the attitude of the three substitutes, as they were decisive for this success.

“This is the spirit we need, we have a lot of quality in the squad, now even more with the new signings.”

Milan have certainly revamped in the January transfer window, bringing in Gimenez, Joao Felix, Riccardo Sottil, Kyle Walker and Warren Bondo.

“This is what we want, more consistency, to win every game and our objective is to get into the top four.”

A whole new Milan is taking shape

EMPOLI, ITALY – FEBRUARY 8: Santiago Gimenez of AC Milan celebrates after scoring a goal during the Serie A match between Empoli and AC Milan at Stadio Carlo Castellani on February 8, 2025 in Empoli, Italy. (Photo by Gabriele Maltinti/Getty Images)

Gimenez has made a spectacular start to his Milan career, assisting the Joao Felix lob in the Coppa Italia quarter-final win over Roma, then scoring his first goal on his Serie A debut this evening.

“I am really grateful to the team, it was a good opportunity to come here,” Gimenez told DAZN.

“Games are always difficult in Serie A, so we had to push really hard, but we made it.”

By a strange twist of fate, his next match in the Rossoneri jersey will be against his old club Feyenoord in the Champions League play-off.

“It’s going to be really tough, it’s a lot of emotion because Feyenoord gave me a lot, they are like family.”